People: countable or uncountable?

[Curleyes]

"People" ic ountable or uncountable?
Can someboy explain the use of the word, please?
Thank you!

[Yankee]

The word "people" is countable AND plural.
"There are 18 people visiting english-test.net at the moment."

If there is only one, then you should say "person".
"Curleyes is the person who asked this question."

Amy

[Tom]

Dear Amy

When do we say A PEOPLE ?

Tom

[Yankee]

Good point, Tom.

Why don't you have a go at the explanation?

Amy

[Pamela]

We cannot say "a people". It's a great mistake. Just in addition to Amy's excellent explanation, I want to detalize that people is a collective noun (singular in form but plural in meaning). It may be also called as a noun of multitude. NB: When the subject of the sentence is a noun of multitude the verb used as predicate is in the plural: The weather was warm and the people were sitting at their doors.

Also make a note that if we're not implying a number of men or women (people) but nations, we must use "peoples".

[Alan]

Hi Pamela,

You said:

[Pamela]

I see,Alan.You mean that if we imply a single nation we can use "a people"?Frankly speakig,it sounds new for me

[Yankee]

Hi Pamela

Yes, Alan's explanation is absolutely correct. My answer only gave the typical (most usual) usage for the word "people" and Tom's question pointed out that I had left out another, less frequent usage.

Amy

[Wham]

What about ...

There were 20 persons
There were 20 people

Why did you say that "persons" is an awful word?

[Barb_D]

In everyday converstaion, we say "people." "Persons" sounds like a police report.

There were 20 people.

[Eris]

I am really confused in using either 20 people or 20 peoples

[Barb_D]

Hello Eris.
Use "20 people." It's already plural.

[Si2007]

Hello all,

Please tell me whether I shoud say "people is" or " people are".

Many thanks.

Love.

[Barb_D]

The word "People" is plural so it needs the plural form of the verb.
People are...