Cuando se entiende la palabra "People" como singular?

Question

Buenos dias Profesores: Cuando se entiende la palabra "People" como singular? en que situaciones. Gracias: Walter

Answer 1

The word "people" in Engish is not used in a singular form.

People are rude.

People were talking during the opera.

That's how it's different from Spanish. As you know, Spanish has "las personas" (pl) and "la gente" (s). "Las personas" would use the third person, plural form of any verb. "La gente" would use the third person singular form of any verb.

Buena pregunta

We are one people, united by our common heritage. - samdie, Jul 16, 2011

Answer 2

So much for understatement.

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It is the opposite of a collective noun

The OED has this to say: "1. A body of persons composing a community, tribe, race, or nation; = folk 1. Sometimes viewed as a unity, sometimes as a collective of number. a. In singular, as a collective of unity." (emphasis added)

Lincoln said "a a house divided against itself cannot stand" and (eight years earlier) Sam Huston said "A Nation divided against itself cannot stand.". Either could have substituted the word "people" for "house"/"nation" (except that the use of "people" emphasizes cultural/ethnic rather than political unity.

The example sentences offered in the two earlier posts are entirely irrelevant because they are examples of the other use of "people" ([again the OED] 2. a. The persons belonging to a place, or constituting a particular concourse, congregation, company, or class. Construed as pl.)

Answer 3

As you have noted, "people" is a plural word. It is the opposite of a collective noun (a word which applies to an entire group of individual members and which takes a singular verb). "People" is an individualizing noun (a word which applies to the individual members of a group -never just one member!- and takes a plural verb). In phrases like "people can be so rude" or "people are often kind", the idea cannot apply to every person - it can only be used for at least two persons (even though one may be looking at and meaning just one particular person!). At least two persons is pretty obviously plural, right? This is the kind of tortured logic that leads to forbidding double-negatives, too!