Shoutbox

this is a grammatical error that drives me insane when people are speaking. though some people say i am wrong and that the term peoples is infact a word.

this is a grammatical error that drives me insane when peoples are speaking. though some peoples say i am wrong and that the term 'peoples' is infact a word.

My view on the matter is...
any use of the term peoples is incorrect - as it is using a double plural
use of the term people's is correct - demonstrating ownership

so if the word people is plural there can be no plural of a plural word.
examples:
fish = singular or plural -> fishes is infact bad grammar, unless implying ownership (fish's)

sheep = singular or plural -> sheeps is infact bad grammar, unless implying ownership (sheep's)

goose = singular, geese = plural -> geeses is infact bad grammar unless it's implying ownership (geese's)

this leads me to believe that the word people behaves in the same way

person = singular, people = plural -> peoples is not a word, unless you are implying ownership, for example the people's republic of china.

so where do you stand?
does hearing the term peoples expel from people's mouth drive you insane or do you infact think I am wrong and wish to tell me that peoples is infact a word?

quote:

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Originally posted by Jarrod
does hearing the term peoples expel from people's mouth drive you insane or do you infact think I am wrong and wish to tell me that peoples is infact a word?

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Neither. In every day living, I wouldn't give a damn.

Yes I agree that "peoples" is not grammatically correct, but it doesn't make me want to pull my hair out either.

It is a word, and it means the human beings of a particular nation or ethnic group. Fish and Sheep are uncountable unlike People.

Persons is plural of person. So what is the singular of people

quote:

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Originally posted by Moh Zayadi
It is a word, and it means the human beings of a particular nation or ethnic group. Fish and Sheep are uncountable unlike People.

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u can count both fish and sheep,
but u don't say i have 10 clown fishes and 4 blowfishes

Person is the singular of both Persons and People. It's all about the usages.

define: peoples

meh.

u can count both fish and sheep,
but u don't say i have 10 clown fishes and 4 blowfishes

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True you dont use an "s".

"Peoples" is definitely not a word

And to satisfy my curiosity I doubled checked in OED....and peoples is most definitely not a word

So yes, anyone using it is gramatically incorrect.

The one that really gets my goat is "he should of done it"

there is no verb 'to of'   the verb is indeed "to have"...."he should have done it"

anything else is just so ignorant it's actually painful, lol