Is ‘person’ an uncountable noun?
The word ‘person’ describes either one man, woman, or child. It is a singular countable noun, and has two plural forms. These are ‘people’ (most commonly used) and ‘persons’ (usually used in official circumstances).
– The person who did this should confess before it is handed over to the police.
– This must not be shown to any unauthorised persons.
– This lift can hold a maximum of 20 persons.
‘People’ is a collective noun (singular in form, but plural in meaning), it can be used when you are talking about a specific group of individuals, or when you do not know the number of people you are referring to. Here are some examples:
– The people in this village are very friendly.
– Just a few people turned up for my birthday party yesterday.
– Millions of people from all over the world will be watching the World Cup.
– So many people die of starvation every day.
Now, this bit might confuse you, but ‘people’ can also be used in the singular form, but then it has a slightly different meaning. It refers to the men, women and children of a particular country, nation, or ethnic group.
– The Brazilians are a great people.
This version of ‘people’, however, is also countable, and the plural is ‘peoples’. As I mentioned before this would only be used if you were talking about ‘peoples of the world’, as in different ethnic or cultural groups of people, from different countries.
– The indigenous peoples of Native America and Aboriginal Australia.
(Note how this is not just referring to one nation of people but two.)
– The peoples of Asia are becoming more westernised.
(This is referring to the different countries within Asia, such as Vietnam, China, Korea etc.)
The latter form is usually used in scholarly contexts and not in general spoken English.
