ESL: "People" term

[Drizzt]

I've always had a lot of trouble using this.

What's the exact meaning and use of the term "people"?
I've always used it instead of "persons", because "persons" sounds ugly and 'cause I'm used to this since when I started with english...


Can someone give me a little list of terms to use in reference to other/others, and their meanings?

10x

[Brian Ellis]

The pedantic answer is simple.

A person is an individual. You CAN have many persons: this is perfectly correct. This is quite commonly seen in sentences like, "Would all persons who have filled in the form please come forward.". In this case "people" would definitely be wrong.

A people is an ethnic division. For example, the Basque persons in France and Spain form a people. Switzerland has four basic peoples, based on language.

So much for the pedantic, now for usage. Today, the word "people" has expanded to mean any plurality of persons and takes on the plural form without the final 's'. As such, it has partially supplanted 'persons', which largely remains in formal writing.

Electronic OED definitions:
people // n. & v.
n.
1 (usu. treated as pl.) a) persons composing a community, tribe, race, nation, etc. (the English people; a warlike people; the peoples of the Commonwealth). b) a group of persons of a usu. specified kind (the chosen people; these people here; right-thinking people).
2 (prec. by the; treated as pl.) a the mass of people in a country etc. not having special rank or position. b these considered as an electorate (the people will reject it).
3 a Brit. parents or other relatives (my people disapprove). b US ancestors.
4 a subjects, armed followers, a retinue, etc. b a congregation of a parish priest etc.
5 persons in general (people do not like rudeness).
v.tr. (usu. foll. by with)
1 fill with people, animals, etc.; populate.
2 (esp. as peopled adj.) inhabit; occupy; fill (thickly peopled).
[Middle English via Anglo-French poeple, people, Old French pople, peuple, from Latin populus]

(Note in 1 above the use of 'persons)

person // n.
1 an individual human being (a cheerful and forthright person).
2 the living body of a human being (hidden about your person).
3 Gram. a category used in the classification of pronouns, verb forms, etc., according to whether they indicate the speaker (first person); the addressee (second person); a third party (third person).
4 (in comb.) used to replace -man in offices open to either sex (salesperson).
5 (in Christianity) God as Father, Son, or Holy Ghost (three persons in one God).
6 euphem. the genitals (expose one's person).
7 a character in a play or story.
8 a type of person who enjoys something specified (not a party person).
in one's own person oneself; as oneself.
in person physically present.
[Middle English via Old French persone from Latin persona ‘actor's mask, character in a play, human being’]

I have two reference books on modern usage. Trask (US and UK) gives no advice on either word. Partridge (UK) has no entry for person but, for people, he explains only which senses are singular and which are plural.

Collins (UK) gives under person:
Usage People is the word usually used to refer to more than one individual. Persons is rarely used, except in official English: "several persons were interviewed". [Personally, I would hesitate to use 'people' in this example, "several people were interviewed" because the adjective 'several' is more definite: for me, people is something more vague or uncounted. However, having said that, my English dates back to the 1930s for my formative years and there has been considerable evolution since then, as in any living language, so there may be a nuance of change which I have not followed entirely.]

Unlike C. King, I find "three persons" better than "three people", which grates on my ear. Again, this may be because of two generation gaps.

I am a professional freelance technical journalist (even won two awards for this work, if you'll excuse my blowing my own trumpet). No editor or reader has ever taken me to task for using 'persons' where C.K. may have used people.

Finally, during my travels, I've found that 'people' is used more in the US, where educated Brits may sometimes have used 'persons'.

I agree that there is some doubt in this matter and I understand the reason behind Drizzt's question. It is a grey area in modern English.

Hope this helps.