People vs. Persons

People vs. Persons People vs. Persons People vs. Persons By Mark Nichol What’s the difference between people and persons? The fast-and-loose answer is that people is correct and persons is wrong; the former word has supplanted the latter as the plural form of person. At one time, the distinction between the terms was that people is a mass noun referring to an undetermined number of humans (â€Å"I’ve known a lot of people like that†), while persons is employed when the quantity is known (â€Å"Seven persons were apprehended†). Persons is still appropriate in legal and other formal contexts (â€Å"Authorities are seeking persons of interest†) and when referring to the human body (â€Å"A search was made of their persons†), but in one of those curious cases of illogical semantic shift, it has all but disappeared in general usage. On a related note, some readers are puzzled by peoples, but this is merely the plural form of the collective noun people; â€Å"the peoples of the Arctic region,† for example, refers to multiple distinct ethnic groups: the people of here, the people of there, and the people of the other place: the peoples. People, meanwhile, is occasionally used as a verb synonymous with populate (â€Å"We will soon people the entire planet†); the antonym is unpeople. (Populate and people share etymological origin.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Coordinating vs. Subordinating ConjunctionsAwoken or Awakened?If I Was vs. If I Were