While there are valid uses of the word "persons", most often one expresses the idea of more than a single person with the word "people". Today when I was signing the contract for electricity in my apartment, the very kind represenatitive asked me: "How many persons live in your flat?". While in no way ambiguous, this usage sounds odd.
Much more natural sounding would have been "How many people live in your flat?".
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2 comments:
Hi Sheila,
Having learned another foreign language on foreign soil (Portuguese in Brazil), I really appreciated people who would take the time to correct my (sometime sublte) mistakes; otherwise, you make them the rest of your life!
BTW, did you read this blog's description? "This blog is intented to help Germans improve on the finer points of English. Hopefully Germans who read this will reciprocate for us poor Yankees learning German."
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