People IS vs. People ARE

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For plenty of new English speakers, the English language can be confusing with all of its seemingly contradictory and haphazard rules.

For example, whereas most singular nouns only need an “s” to be added at the end to become a plural noun, there are several nouns that can only be pluralized by changing the whole word altogether.

To show how frustrating English can be, it is only enough to realize that while the plural of the word “noose” is “nooses,” the plural of “goose” is “geese”. To make matters worse, the plural of “moose” is still “moose.”

Now, some words can confound even English speakers. Take for instance the word “people.” Is it a countable or uncountable noun? And, if it is countable, is it singular or plural? Knowing this is very important as it will make all the difference between writing “people is” or “people are.”

 

So, is it people is or people are?

As frustrating as this may be, the answer is it depends. Normally, the word people is used as the plural form of the word person, in which case it becomes a plural countable noun and takes the verb are. On the other hand, if used to refer to a particular nation, tribe, or ethnic group, the word people becomes a singular noun, one that may be followed by the verb “is” and whose plural form becomes “peoples.”

If you still feel confused, there is no need to fret; we are about to clear this whole thing up:

 

People as the plural form of person

This is the most common usage, and odds are if you are using the word people, this is what you mean. Person is a singular, countable noun, and it has two plural forms: persons and people.

The word persons is not used a lot in common speech and is more often than not reserved for formal speech.

Common examples you might have come across in your everyday life include the following:

 

Persons under 16 not admitted.

This contract binds the following persons:

 

You get the picture. Persons is often found in legalese and on formal signs. Another common expression found in legalese is “What say you.”

As for people, it is common in both formal and informal speech, and in all cases, it takes the plural form of a verb after it. Here are a few examples:

 

The Japanese people are industrious.

People were celebrating the holiday.

 

In both of these examples, the word people meant individuals. Also, since people is a countable plural noun in this scenario, we can say the following:

 

This job requires seven people.

There were 200 people in the theater.

 

What’s worth pointing out is that even though both persons and people are the plural form of person, they are not interchangeable all the time. Taking inspiration from the above examples, we will find that the following sentences are correct but a bit awkward:

 

This job requires seven persons.

There were 200 persons in the theater.

 

Conversely, the following sentences don’t work and will give any native English native speaker pause:
The Japanese persons are industrious.

 

Persons were celebrating the holiday.

 

The main reason that persons and people are not interchangeable in those latter two sentences is that people can also be used to talk about a large, undefined group of individuals, while persons works better with a more specific group. So, when you say, “the Japanese persons are industrious,” people will likely think that you are talking about specific Japanese individuals rather than the people of Japan as a whole.

This brings us to our second point.

 

People as a singular noun

So far, we’ve looked at people as the plural of person. But, people can be used to refer to all the individuals within a specific tribe, ethnic group, nation, or any other collective. What matters here is that all these individuals are referred to as a unit, which is why the word people acts as a singular noun: it refers to a single unit.

Here is an illustrative example that’ll clarify the difference between both usages of the word people:

 

During the seventh century, the peoples of the Middle East fought each other.

During the seventh century, the people of the Middle East fought each other.

 

Despite the similarity between both sentences, they really don’t mean the same thing. The first sentence means that the different tribes that populated the Middle East used to fight each other back in the seventh century.

Conversely, the second sentence means that the individuals themselves were the ones fighting amongst each other. In other words, the second sentence implies that the fighting wasn’t between different tribes but was between each individual and their neighbors.

Hopefully, this example will have clarified things a bit. Let’s look at another example:

The Japanese are an industrious people.

The Japanese people are industrious.

We have already seen the latter sentence, but how is it any different from the first sentence?

Well, the first sentence considers the Japanese as an entire unit, as one block, that acts in unison. But, the second sentence looks at the Japanese individuals themselves. So, while the word people in the second sentence can be substituted by the word individuals, the word people in the first sentence can be substituted by the words unit or group:

 

The Japanese are an industrious group.

The Japanese are an industrious unit.

 

And, since the word people here is a singular, countable noun, it can take the verb is after it. Here is one more example:
Among the Asian peoples, the Japanese people is the most industrious.

Despite the fact that the above sentence is grammatically correct, it may still throw some English speakers off as they are not used to this second usage of the word people. Instead, you would be better off using another word other than people when talking about an entire bock or unit of individuals.

You might want to consider words like civilization, tribe, or population.

Are there any other cases where people is followed by is?

Aside from meaning a unit or block of individuals, people is followed by the singular form of a verb when it is discussed as a word.

If you look at both the title of this section and the first sentence in this paragraph, you will find that people has the verb is following it. This is because we are discussing the word people instead of an actual group of individuals.

Other than that, you will write people are instead of people is. In fact, the above two exceptions are rare enough, especially for new English speakers, that we can say always write people are and forget about people is.

And, should you want to refer to a group of individuals as a single unit, just use any of the other words that mean the same thing.

 

Are there any other words that can function as both a singular and plural noun?

I’m so glad you asked because there actually are words that can act as both. For instance, when talking about the United States, the United Nations, or any other entity that is made up of smaller entities, you can refer to them in the singular or plural, depending on what you want to say.

When talking about the United States, you use the singular when referring to it as a country, but you use the plural when discussing the actual states within the country:

 

The United States is home to more than 300 million Americans.

The United States are all subject to federal laws.