Several Persons vs. Several People

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi there. My name’s Ken. I’m calling from the bucolic quiet corner of Connecticut, Ashford, Connecticut.

The quiet bucolic corner of Connecticut.

Which corner is that? The northeast, northwest?

The official quiet corner is the northeast. It’s also the last green valley where from space you cannot see any lights from like just south of Worcester to just down to about Mystic, Connecticut.

Wow, that does sound bucolic. I’m surprised as close as Connecticut is to the metropolis.

No light pollution, huh?

It’s a rural area. There’s like 4,000 people, 4,500 people in the town.

Okay, not much to do. So you called us, huh?

Well, for quite a long time now, I’ve had some angst about the use of the word persons, when the word people would seem to be the more appropriate choice.

So, you know, for example, I’ve always wondered why Barbara Streisand then didn’t sing Persons, Persons Who Need Persons, are the luckiest persons in the world, you know, if that were correct.

Good point.

I’ve spent a lot of time in, like, church settings.

I work for a major deity here in Northeast Connecticut.

A major deity, did you say?

Yeah.

She’s an insurance company.

I’m an ordained minister.

So I’ve spent a lot of time in church.

What?

You’re an ordained minister or you work for an insurance company?

Which is it?

I do both.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Historically, I worked for, I’ve been ordained since 1980.

Okay.

But I ran away from the church about seven years ago.

I’m on my way back recently, but, you know, I’m sort of a missionary to the insurance company.

As a minister, you were talking about persons versus people.

Well, yeah.

And so in the Church, you know, they were, like, in the 70s, they were sort of being hip, and they’d say, folk.

They’d talk about the folk, the Church folk.

And then they got a little, in the 80s and into the 90s, and right up to now, they’re using things like persons.

Would the persons who are going to be baptized come forward?

Oh, really?

Would the persons who are going to join the Church please come forward?

And in liturgy and in writing, I’ve seen this frequently, and every time I see it or hear it, it’s like, you know, nails on a chalkboard to me.

And so about 10 years ago, I wrote to Gina Bureka, who is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut, and a neat person and a personality, and she has a little column in the great metropolitan newspaper here in Arford.

And I said to her, Gina, what’s up with this persons versus people thing?

And all she did was write back saying, if persons were correct, the Constitution would begin, we the persons.

And so, but that didn’t answer my question.

And so I thought maybe since you folks had A Way with Words, you could help me.

That’s so interesting.

I hadn’t heard it used in connection with the church.

I’m surprised, really, given what we know about persons typically being corporate and kind of legalese.

Yeah, legalese.

Kind of official sounding, kind of authority based.

Well, church.

I mean, yeah, I guess you could.

Not in elevators, you know.

Yeah.

This elevator holds 13 persons.

Right.

Elevators.

That’s a good example.

And persons is a bit more formal and, as Grant said, specialized.

You know, you think about the Missing Persons Bureau and that kind of thing.

But otherwise, people is a much more natural use, I think.

There was a quote-unquote rule that was floating around for a while that said that if you could count the number of people in the group, then you should use persons if it’s a really small number.

You know, like there are five persons at the bus stop.

But that was a manufactured rule that was rarely embraced and probably never really caught on.

Yeah, it’s one of those things that has to do with just the native ear and the feel.

And I’m completely with you on this, Ken.

The adaptation of the legalese, I think, is a piece of it, as I’ve come to understand it.

But another thing, to me, it just sounds snooty.

I don’t know.

It just sounds a little stuffy.

Yeah, yeah, a little bit too lofty for the context.

So, Ken, I think that you should stand up in the middle of a service and just say, you know what?

Moses didn’t say, let my persons go.

Right?

I think that would work.

Let my persons go.

Into this bucolic valley that you just got.

Ken, thank you so much for calling.

Well, it was fun talking to you.

Have a great day.

All right.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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