This may seem like a really stupid question but I don't know where to ask it, and this forum seems like it needs a few new threads so here is my question:


When do you use the word "people" and "persons" in a sentence?

People:

"There are people out there."
"Look at all those people!"
"Those white people are crazy ;) "

Persons:
"I am a part of a group totaling 5 persons."

Basically that is how you use persons. You don't say "5 people." That is wrong!

:)

Actually you should have asked your question differently, but I know what you mean ::)

Votorx:


When do you use the word "people" and "persons" in a sentence?

In sentences describing everything you hate, why you hate, how you hate, and when you hate that's when.

Or, if you'd like, in sentences such as this one " Why do people ask stupid questions? Say a person asked some online persons his stupid question in a post- would said person be ripped a new asshole on his person?"

"Persons" and "people" are used interchangeably. Finis.

Absane:
You don't say "5 people." That is wrong!

Yes you do and no its not.

I always thought it was alright to say 5 people. My english teacher says it's correct to say 5 people, infact she doesn't even know when to say persons.

My English teacher would only occasionaly bring his face up from the bright red plastic cereal bowl in which he kept a rainbow assortment of barbituates and painkillers. But when he did, he would sometimes mumble something about people, love, and community.

What's your point?

My point is that when I was a child, wide-eyed and hunkered behind a desk, I learned to understand what was being said as well as how something should be said.

Yet you still haven't answered my question. Infact no one here has answered my question, is it seriously that hard to tell me what the proper way of using it is?

I never use the word persons. :confused:

Depends where you live.

That being the case, what rules would one follow on the internet?

"The word people is best not used with words of number in place of persons. If of 'six people' five went away, how man people would be left? Answer: one people." Page 56

The Elements of Style.. William Strunck Jr. and E.B. White. Copyright 2000.