32

I have been confused for so long about the plural and singular forms of "people". I want to put an end to this confusion.

What is the difference between these following expressions, and is it correct to use these expressions in both their singular and plural forms?

    • "The German people are not warlike"

    • "The German people is not warlike"

(As in "The German people is no warlike nation. It is a soldierly one, which means it does not want a war but does not fear it....")

    • "People are funny"

    • "People is funny"

Here I suppose that "people is" referring to a population/community: "the German people is not warlike" = "the German population is not warlike" and "People is funny" = "population is funny".

Is this correct? If it is correct, then what does "people are" mean?

Improve this question
13
  • 3
    People are always plural, but a population is a singular noun.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 15:34
  • 2
    @FumbleFingers what about A Prosperous People?
    – phoog
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 16:07
  • @phoog: What about them? There are 26 written instances of are a prosperous people in Google Books, but the only instance of the singular verb form is is a prosperous, people-centred, compact city, which doesn't match OP's context.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 16:34
  • 1
    @phoog: Dunno about that. True, Americans tend to stick to Microsoft is [doing something], where BrE also accepts the possibility that Microsoft are doing it. But no-one accepts The people is revolting.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 19:46
  • 1
    The fact that it's predominantly plural is weird considering it comes from the French "peuple", being a collective, like a crowd. I don't know why nobody talked about the etymology and its evolution in old English in the answers, it would have been ver interesting.
    – Quidam
    Commented Dec 28, 2019 at 22:23

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
19

The word people is predominantly plural (see Merriam-Webster's top definitions), although it can be singular.

According to this source (a Pearson Education Q&A),

In the PLURAL sense, people is used as the plural of person very frequently. It is a plural count noun and takes a plural verb. It never has an -s ending; it is already plural.

Most of the time, people will be plural; and as far as I can tell, you will never see the phrase people is--at least, not in a grammatically correct sentence.

Here is what that same source has to say of the singular people:

the SINGULAR sense of people is used to refer to ALL the men, women, and children of a particular tribe, nation, country or ethnic group, speaking of them as a UNIT, and so the phrase a great people is indeed singular. It is a singular count noun.

(Okay, people is appears as a phrase in that quotation, but is refers to phrase and not people.)

People, even when singular, should always take are.

For more on whether to use is or are, please visit the Online Writing Lab.

Improve this answer
14
  • 6
    Regarding the singular sense, I cannot agree about 'people...should always take are'. One might say The Russians are a musical people, but that's because the subject is Russians - plural. What if you said A brave people is not cowed by the threats of a tyrant.
    – WS2
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 16:42
  • 3
    @FumbleFingers Really? Should it be A brave people are not cowed...?
    – WS2
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 16:43
  • 1
    @Jake: Well, let's not get bogged down in whether I'm taking issue with what you claim or what your cited source claims. The fact of the matter is some of the 10 written instances of this people shares are either "archaic" or "accidental collocations", whereas the 822 instances of these people share represent a commonplace usage.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 17:28
  • 1
    @WS2: I can only read the words in context in 4 of the claimed 7 instances of this people share, and one of those is an accidental collocation anyway. So I think we can safely say I wasn't introducing any significant distortion by choosing these rather than this, when contrasting singular/plural verb usages.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 19:53
  • 1
    @WS2: Well, I suppose I must accept that there are a few contexts where people can be used as a singular noun. To be honest, I got confused earlier, thinking I was on ELL. Technically speaking, The German people is [whatever it is] is "valid" (though I can't I like it much there). Interestingly, is/are are about equally common in that construction with German, but with English the plural verb is about twice as common. (I can't help wondering if the people who is saying stuff about Germans might include a higher proportion of non-native speakers! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 28, 2015 at 20:36
5

"PEOPLE" is a collective noun/group noun singular in form but is used as plural.

  1. PEOPLE/(s)" can be both singular and plural if refers to the body of enfranchised or qualified citizens; nation ,class, ethnic group, persons under common ruler, kith and kin etc.

  2. However, COD defines 'a warlike people' as singular.(usually no plural) when the meaning is nation / a community.

3.People referring to persons in general is singular in form and takes plural verb.i.e, always plural.

To sum up, people is generally plural and takes a plural verb.

Improve this answer
1

These are semantics, but semantics are exactly the subject here, so I will give it a shot.

Many dictionaries consider collective nouns singular, however this is more a common use definition. In truth, think of collectives as singular plurals. They are handled and spelled as a singular, but remain plural. "People are" remains the correct form in usage. It is referring to a single collection of people.

Some grammar guides and dictionaries state that pluralizing such collectives is incorrect. This is again via what is becoming common usage, it is not from grammar rules, though in time common usage rules do become grammar rules. Though it is often omitted is common practice, is certainly remains correct to pluralize a collective. Just because it is becoming steadily more common to see constructs such as "The people of Europe..." does not invalidate the form "The peoples of Europe..." The first form refers to all of the people of Europe as a single collective. The second for refers to multiple collections of people in Europe as a collection of groups, read it similar to "The many peoples of Europe..."

Improve this answer
0

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.