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newteacher
Joined: 31 May 2007
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 Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:47 am Post subject: Grammar question |
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Had a question come up in class today and I wasn't exactly sure how to answer it.
Da Vinci was one of the most intelligent persons to have ever lived.
Or.
Da Vinci was one of the most intelligent people to have ever lived.
I know I've read the word persons in that context, but I wasn't exactly sure how to explain the difference to my students. The one grammar book I have doesn't mention it, but I checked on dictionary.com and there was a reference to a line from the bible that uses the word persons in a similar context. Technically it seems like both sentences are correct, but in the context above it for some reason seems like persons fits a little better. Can one of the many grammar nuts out there help me out with this please. |
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Eedoryeong
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Location: Jeju
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:50 am Post subject: |
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I'll take a crack at it:
'persons' is a legal term that is reserved for things like,
maximum 12 persons permitted on this elevator
by city ordinance blah blah blah.
Unless you're teaching legalese, it should be 'people'. |
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Khenan
Joined: 25 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:58 am Post subject: |
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| These are equivalent. Persons is more formal, i.e., legalese, but can be used to sound more proper. The difference is semantic. Tell your students to use "people," because this is the common usage, and they will sound more fluent. |
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newteacher
Joined: 31 May 2007
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:01 am Post subject: |
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| Khenan wrote: |
| These are equivalent. Persons is more formal, i.e., legalese, but can be used to sound more proper. The difference is semantic. Tell your students to use "people," because this is the common usage, and they will sound more fluent. |
Ok, that's kind of what I had thought. Normally I would use people, but I think in comparing Da Vinci to the rest of us, I for some reason thought it would be more appropriate to use persons.
Last edited by newteacher on Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:09 am; edited 1 time in total |
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bacasper
Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:08 am Post subject: |
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| Both are correct. |
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