Differentiating between Person(s) and People

Holy Guacamole! I didn't know and am unaware of such a "rule". Will take note of my usage of these two words from now on. Thanks for the information!

You never know what you learn everyday! :) I do take not of this more when I'm writing than when I'm speaking. "Persons" tends to be more specific and "People" is more general. The examples you use are all correct, as are the rest of the examples that others have posted here. In the end, it's really all the same, but from the sources I'm getting, "persons" is for formal use and usually when there is an actual definite number of individuals. For example: "36 persons received free flu shots at the clinic." "36 people..." makes sense as well, again this is used in formal writing.

In my own native language I hardly make mistakes, friend. But in foreign languages it is very difficult. I thank that mylot is aware that this is a community of people from all over the world. We do our best, but no grades are placed for language or grammar use. I never know where to use in, on and at in English. And we have 2 verbs in Spanish for the English "to be" and 2 others for the verb "to have". If I tried to use English as a scholar here, I would have quit a long time ago. The sun is shining here. Have a nice day!

hello ram, I am aware,but you can judge with my writings. I know I am not good when it comes to writing and my grammar is even poor to become one. I am struggling to write as directed by passion and heart's desires. jaiho®

Now this could be me, but the word persons it just sounds wrong. It looks wrong. I know that there is a use of it, but there's just something about it that is rather unsettling and it kind of disturbs me. Then again there are a lot of times where there is a lot of things about the English language...well to be honest, it doesn't really make any sense. With that fact in mind, I doubt this is something that most people have never given the slightest thought to. Granted there are obviously some people that are. Then there are people who are like me who really have a problem with the look and how the word persons just rolls off of the tongue. Then there are people who use them really depending on what their mood is. I honestly don't care in the end, as long as I can understand what you mean even though there is a part of my brain that will never accept the word "persons" being used as proper. No matter if it is.

I absolutely do! I mean, I'm one of those people who sometimes tend to correct others' mistakes in terms of speaking, grammar, and use of words, and I even take notice of those who are very close to me! Even my family, my girlfriend, my closest friends. So yeah, I do take care of the use of words and the appropriate ones to apply.

I hope I have a good command of English to differentiate the usage. I don't really take note of whether I'm grammatically correct, just relying on my own grammar foundation to use the right words and tone. I hope I get corrected if I make any mistakes in my English.

Yes.Persons refers to a group of individual humans.You usually refer to persons with a disability,or persons who are high school graduates. However,people is a collective noun that simply refers to a group.So you can have "people who speak spanish" as opposed to "persons with Spanish ancestors". It's a small difference but can be really important :)