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people:
(A)
(a group name — plural of a ‘person’, in this context, cannot be used with a singular verb or with the article ‘a’)
some people
human being — not an animal, plant, tree or a thing;
a group of men and/or woman considered together (taken as one);
one’s family — grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and other relatives;
a group of men, women and children living in a country; a nation;
common men and women of a place, not including the rich or the royal family,
Prince William (R) (royal family) with some common people
e.g.
There are all sorts of people in the market — big and small, rich and poor, young and old — buying and selling things.
Rosy wanted Regan to meet her people. (i.e. her family)
All the people of Australia are called Australians.
The Prince visited some village people in a remote fishing village and shared some of their jokes.
(B)
(plural: ‘peoples‘, in this context, can be used with a singular verb and with the article ‘a’)
the ‘Bantu’ are a brave people and are one of several powerful peoples of Africa — the other peoples being ‘Julu’, ‘Pojulu’, ‘Sawfa’, ‘Kounta’, ‘Ngoni’, ‘Hehe’, etc.
a group of men, women and children sharing a common language, religion, tradition, culture, etc.
e.g.
As a people, most Omanis are God-fearing and peace-loving.
We can read about many and varied peoples of East Africa in this book.
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{Language Usage: When ‘people’ is used to refer to human beings — men, women and children — it is used as a plural noun/collective noun/group word. e.g. “There are several people walking about the park.”, “City people are supposed to be more intelligent than the country people.”
The word ‘person’ is used to refer to one human being, when the speaker is not certain whether the human being is a man or a woman, or when it is not important whether the human being is a man or woman, e.g. “Excuse me. This chair is for only one person; not for two persons.”
Therefore, according to this traditional grammar rule, using “people” in place of ‘persons’ is wrong, as in “The police questioned five persons.” but not “The police questioned five people.”
However, this rule is not often followed even by the most educated people, and so using ‘persons’ or ‘people’ is accepted!}
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[Return to “person“.]
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