“person”和”people”翻譯成中文都是「人」,那要如何分辨什麼時候用”person”,何時又該用”people”呢?此外,有時候還會在文章中看到”persons”和”peoples”,到底是什麼意思呢?3分鐘帶你快速了解!
person (n.)
單數詞,指的是單一個體,或是用來描述某一種人格特質的人。
定義:
- a man, woman, or child
- Who was the first person to swim the English Channel?
- 游過英吉利海峽的第一人是誰?
- used when describing someone’s character
- She’s an extremely kind person.
- 她是個非常和藹的人。
persons (n.)
person的名詞複數有people和persons,但persons是相當正式的用詞,通常只在法律文件或正式公函中使用,主要用來強調個數、幾個人的概念。
people (n.)
people是person的名詞複數,通常是指「多個人組成的群體」或「族群」,抑或是某個特定行業的人們。
定義:
- men, women, and children
- Who are these people?
- 這些人是誰?
- used to refer to everyone, or informally to the group that you are speaking to
- People will think you’ve gone mad.
- 人們會以為你瘋了。
- men and women who are involved in a particular type of work
- Most of her friends are media people.
- 她大部分的朋友都是媒體界人士。
peoples (n.)
當”people”代表「一個種族」、「社會」時,”peoples”就用來強調兩個以上的多個種族。
定義:
- all the men, women, and children who live in a particular country, or who have the same culture or language
- Taiwan’s indigenous peoples (ph.)
- 台灣原住民
- a society
- Customs similar to this one are found among many peoples of the world.
- 在世界上許多民族中都有類似這樣的風俗。
額外補充:實際寫作時到底要用person, persons, 還是people?
“person”是當你想要表達「單數」人稱的時候,“persons”是較為正式的用詞,通常只在法律和哲學的文件中使用,日常生活中如果要表示「複數個體」時,通常還是用”people“代表群體。
例句:
- She is such a kind person.
- I saw three people standing on the stage.
錯誤用法:
- I saw three
personsstanding on the stage. (這裡應該用people比較正確)