Comment on Is there a difference in meaning between the words *people* and *persons*?

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Wolf314159@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

“People” is a generic term for more than one person.

“Persons” denotes a singular distinct grouping of people. Ie, Native American persons.

Are you sure about that? Cause it sounds like you’ve never spoken to a native English speaker about the terms here.

A group of persons with a commonality are a people. The individuals are persons within a group. You can say “a group of people”, but that’s different (like a sheep vs. a flock of sheep and also a distraction here). The group is a people. People is not a generic term for multiple persons, it’s implicitly a group with some commonality. Nobody says “the American persons”, it’s “the American people”. The “various peoples of North America” would refer to a plurality of various and distinct groups of persons.

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