Whoa . . . look at all those people! Photo by Ezra Comeau-Jeffrey on Unsplash
Do you want your writing to be instantly transformed into a mucky mess of corporate-sounding mush? Then be sure to use persons as the plural word for person. Whiz! Bang! You’ve got yourself something no one will want to read.
Today we usually only see persons in those kinds of behemoth documents. (Think about the Human Resources manuals you had to promise your boss you read.) It wasn’t always this way, though.
There is a difference between people and persons. Traditionally, persons was used when referring to a group of humans for which the exact number of humans was known.
Example: Four persons were involved in the robbery.
People was used as a mass noun when you didn’t know the number of humans in a group.
Example: There were so many people at the rally.
Etymology
The words’ etymologies support this traditional usage. Person comes from the Latin word persona, meaning a singular “human being, person.” People comes from the Latin word populus, meaning “a people, nation; body of citizens; a multitude.”
Modern usage
When considering person’s etymology, it follows that plural word for multiple individuals should be persons. However, people has so taken over the definition of persons, in addition to its own, that now you really only see it in those stuffy Human Resources documents and legal writings I mentioned earlier.
So unless you’re a lawyer, or you’re writing a really boring piece of corporate text, use people.
Erin Servais is the founder of Dot and Dash, LLC, an author-services company focusing on women writers and offering a range of book editing, author coaching, and social media packages.
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Grammar Party 
Brilliant and oh so true. (You could expand on lawyer people as proponents of this horrid usage to include policy people, law enforcement people, security people and as always, uninformed people who want to sound like smart (or educated) people people. 😉 (double people intended)
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Should I write on my web page, that my hotel has got rooms for two, three of four (persons or people?) I’ll appreciate your help.
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I always go with “people” because it sounds less stuffy. Technically, you could use “persons.” So I suppose it depends on what sounds better to your ear.
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Pingback: People, Persons and Jargony Mush | Mitchell Lewis
What about “peoples”? Does it exist? If yes, when can it be used?
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No, that would be like saying cactis (cacti is the plural of cactus).
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Yes. You use peoples when you are referring to groups of people among other groups of people. Like I might say, “The peoples of the Sahara Desert” to indicate that I’m referring to all the different groups of people who live there. The different “peoples.”
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I personally think people refers to a group of individuals related in some way, either by tribe, belief, work, nationality even race amongst others… While person refers to an individual consequently persons refers specifically to two or more individuals that might be related or not.
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Yes. You use peoples when you are referring to groups of people among other groups of people. Like I might say, “The peoples of the Sahara Desert” to indicate that I’m referring to all the different groups of people who live there. The different “peoples.”
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this is so difficult for a basic english student.
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