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- Many usage guides over the years have suggested that there is a clear distinction between these two words; people is used when referring to a collective group or indeterminate number, and persons serves better when referring to individuals (or a number of individuals).
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Many usage guides over the years have suggested that there is a clear distinction between these two words; people is used when referring to a collective group or indeterminate number, and persons serves better when referring to individuals (or a number of individuals).
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- Peoplevs. Personsas Plurals
- Personsor Peoplein Formal Legal Writing
- Peoplevs. Peoplesfor Ethnic Groups and Nationalities
- Persons, People, Or Peoples?
Personand peopleboth derive from Latin, but from different words. Personcame from persona, which first meant “mask,” like that worn by an actor, but eventually came to mean “an individual human.” People, on the other hand, came from populus, which means “the people” in the sense of a group from the same nation, community, or ethnic group. There was...
In the legal world, including law enforcement, personsis used regularly. It is helpful because nothing is collective where the law is concerned; individuals are prosecuted, not groups. Some legal expressions, such as persons of interestand missing persons, reflect this grammatical preference. Some people use personsin writing that is legal-sounding...
When you refer to the people of a single ethnic group or nationality, always use the word people. Peoplesis only used in cases when it is necessary to distinguish between ethnic groups within the same geographical or cultural context.
The plural of personshould be peoplein the vast majority of contexts, although legalese uses the plural persons. Peoplesshould be reserved for instances where you are referring to more than one distinct ethnic group.
Jun 6, 2022 · The terms people and persons are both plural forms of the word person, but they’re not used in the same situations. People is generally the correct term to use when referring to more than one person — but there are a few important exceptions when you should use persons instead.
- Mary Gormandy White
- Staff Writer
Oct 11, 2021 · When to use peoples. The word peoples is specifically used as the plural of people in its sense as a collective singular noun referring to a nation, or tribe, or other community, as in Indigenous Peoples or the many peoples of the world.
We use person in the singular to refer to any human being: Joel is such a nice person. She’s a person I have a lot of respect for. Persons (plural) is a very formal word. We only use it in rather legalistic contexts: [notice in a lift] Any person or persons found in possession of illegal substances will be prosecuted.
Most people don’t use persons, but the sticklers say there are times when we should. “When we say persons,” says Wilson Follett’s Modern American Usage, “we are thinking, or ought to be, of ones—individuals with identities; whereas when we say people we should mean a large.
Aug 19, 2021 · The words “persons” and “people” are very similar, but you can still make a few important distinctions between the two.
