Morgan Knezovich,
Adult Literacy League Board Member
Being a part of a literacy organization, I’ve
come to accept that oddities within the English language are just my thing. A
recent conversation with volunteers and staff at the League led to a
discussion on the appropriate use of the term persons
and people. One
of our literacy tutors had not known quite how to answer her student's question
about this usage. So, if this question has ever crossed your mind or you just
need a quick grammatical refresher, here’s something I put together just for you:
When to use Persons vs.
People
To answer this question, we first have to define a few
words: Person is a singular word referring to one human man, woman
or child. Persons is the plural form of person, and refers to a
group of individuals. Traditionally, the word persons can be used
when referring to a specific number, as in “you have 10 persons signed
up for your club.” The word person also refers to a group, but it
is used for non-specific numbers such as “you have a lot of people
signed up for your club.”
Today, the preferred choice when you are talking about the
plural form of person is people. While persons
still appears as a plural form of person in most dictionaries, it has
become a word that is more commonly seen in legal documents. For example,
when reading a legal contract, you may see a phrase such as “all persons
involved in this document.” For Law & Order TV fans out there,
you may hear your favorite character use the phrase “persons of
interest.” In the legal field, persons continues to be the
standard use among legal practitioners. However, when considering what is
commonly spoken and written in today’s society, the more culturally acceptable
word is people.
To give a better example, you might say “only one person
has arrived so far.” This is the singular use. Once another
individual has been added to the mix, you would say “two people
have arrived so far,” inserting people as the plural form of person.
To learn more about this topic, check out these great links:
These websites offer great tips for your grammar questions:
Morgan, this is a great post! Persons vs. People is such a great example of the oddities within the English language (we have so many)! The links are helpful and I will forward them to my friends who are learning how to write/read English and my other friends who are working to improve their business writing skills.
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