Today on LetThemTalk we're answering a question from a student of mine in Paris,
Giàu and he asks "what's the plural of PERSON is it PERSONS or PEOPLE?" good
question so here's the answer Giàu and everybody else the singular, for one
individual, is PERSON. We can all agree on that I hope and the plural is
people
ok, that was easy. Thank you for watching see you next time
bye
ok, ok, ok, it's bit more complicated than that. Let me explain.
Yes PEOPLE is the plural of PERSONS "Only 8 people know where the treasure is"
buried. "ten people came to the meeting." "I saw a
lot of people riding bicycles." For a few situations we can use PERSONS now before
I tell you when you can use PERSONS we need to have a quick look at the history
PERSON is a Latin word that came to us from French in the early 13th century
PEOPLE also came from French in the late 13th century and originally PEOPLE meant
a crowd or persons in general. It replaced an Anglo-Saxon word LEDE which
we don't say anymore (I've read that it's still used in some Scottish dialects
but I haven't heard it myself) and to a lesser extent PEOPLE also replaced the
word FOLK which is still used today though it's a much less common words
than PEOPLE with a slightly different meaning. So for a long time
PERSONS was the plural of PERSON and we used persons when we knew the number of
individuals if we had a plural but without a specific number we would use
another word - PEOPLE. So for example "five persons were in the room." but "from my
hotel window I could see a lot of people." In the
sense of a crowd. However, PEOPLE gradually replaced PERSONS as the plural
for all situations. interestingly, when the word people entered the English
language it was a singular noun PEOPLE IS such as in the King James Bible of 1611
"The people is hungry and weary and thirsty, in the wilderness."
2 Samuel 17:29. Now the word PEOPLE is always plural PEOPLE ARE never PEOPLE
IS - don't say that because it's countable. two people, three people, four people. So
when did this change take place? When did PEOPLE start being used as a countable
noun for that let's have a look at the Ngram let's type in MANY PEOPLE, MANY
PERSONS ah and you see in 1883 seems to be a year that MANY PERSONS has been
replaced by MANY PEOPLE as the more common form in written English and in
the present day this really this is the only one you would use. So when do you use
PERSONS? So PERSONS is still used as a
written form in legal English, by the police in certain official documents and
in some formal situations such as in signs and warnings. So let me give you
some examples. "Three cases of missing persons are currently being investigated."
"The lift holds a maximum of eight persons." !Only four persons at a time are
allowed in the room." Also PERSONS would be used as a plural of PERSON when you
are referring to a collection of individuals and not a collective group.
So for example I recently read the headlines in an online newspaper "two
chimpanzees were recognized as legal persons."
interesting. "Police are seeking two persons in relation to the robbery." So
PERSON here has the meaning of individuals and these examples also
generally fall into the category of legal or police English that I just
mentioned. So unless you're a lawyer, you work for the police or the government or
write elevator signs for a living I definitely recommend that you use PEOPLE
as the plural of PERSON. As a footnote though, I would add that in my reading
I've noticed that online in Indian English the word PERSONS seems to be a
lot more common than elsewhere in the English-speaking world. if you are Indian
do use PERSONS? Let us know in the comments. So perhaps when speaking with
Indian people you'll hear it more. I can't confirm that myself because I'm
not Indian. Finally, there is one more use of PEOPLE meaning a nation or an ethnic
group. its countable so the singular is PEOPLE and the plural is PEOPLES for
example; "the land was cultivated by several peoples from the Amazon basin."
"The peoples of the British Isles" come gather round people and piggies..