persons, people

I have a friend back in London who always used to greet me and ask, ‘What’s up with you people?’, or ‘What about you people, what are you doing on Saturday?’. This happened whether or not I was actually with anyone else at the time, and even when in company, the appellation ‘you people’ always amused me. This was years ago, but even now I still remember this bit of phrasing and use it myself sometimes.

So in honour of this old friend, we’re going to look at people and persons today. Persons is something that I only occasionally see, possibly because the context for it isn’t all that common, or possibly because of some larger cosmic reason I’m not privy to. Either way, when I do see it (in a Pl>En translation, of course), it’s often being used instead of people. Examples:

1a) There were no more than ten persons left by the end of his speech.
1b) There were no more than ten people left by the end of his speech.

2a) Although it was seen to be an unpopular move by the liberals, many persons still supported it.

2a) Although it was seen to be an unpopular move by the liberals, many people still supported it.

3a) The individual persons responsible are in hiding at this time.  
3b) The persons responsible are in hiding at this time.

3c) The individuals responsible are in hiding at this time.

3d) Those responsible are in hiding at this time.

4a) He was disturbed that she’d been revealing their secrets to untrained persons.           
4b)  He was disturbed that she’d been revealing their secrets to untrained candidates.

5a) Persons travelling with a child qualify for a 10% discount.          

5b) Passengers travelling with children qualify for a 10% discount.

(1, 2) are the classic examples where persons can be replaced with people in one swift, deadly move. (3a) is an example of good persons usage, but with unnecessary repetition – you only need to use one or the other of individual and persons here, giving us (3b) or (3c). Alternatively, avoid the whole bloody thing entirely by cutting it all out and replacing with a healthy pronoun (3d).

(4,5) illustrate a nice bit of synonym usage. Those of you who took Monday’s advice and are now either completely drunk or have a head brimming with new vocabulary will be particularly pleased here. (4) is more general, whereas in (5), we should have been using passengers to begin with really.

Clearly, there are times when persons is the correct choice, so don’t go thinking I’m totally  down on persons and telling you not to use them; rather,  just follow this handy advice from the boffins at Oxford:

 “The words people and persons can both be used as the plural of person but they are not used in exactly the same way. People is by far the commoner of the two words and is used in most ordinary contexts: a group of people; there were only about ten people; several thousand people have been re-housed. Persons, on the other hand, tends now to be restricted to official or formal contexts, as in this vehicle is authorised to carry twenty persons; no persons admitted without a pass.”

Remember people, more people and less persons!