People or Peoples

[rajmirra]

I read a statement in Manhattan SC. It will say something as "ancient peoples". I always thought we should only use people for plural. Can anyone justify the usage of peoples?

Thanks
R

[camitava]

rajmirra, dnt mind - are u missing something? Because, people is a plural in number. I am sure (on my part obviously) about that!!!

[1970SV]

I read a statement in Manhattan SC. It will say something as "ancient peoples". I always thought we should only use people for plural. Can anyone justify the usage of peoples?

Thanks
R

They may be referring to multiple groups of people (s). For example,
people of Israel and Egypt,,,may be. Gurus?

[Stuart@KaplanGMAT]

People can be used as the plural of person. However, people can also refer to an ethnic, racial or religious group, in which case it can be pluralizes as "peoples".

For example:

The peoples of the middle east share a genetic heritage.

In the above case, "people" is being used as a synonym for "group" and since we can pluralize group (to "groups"), we can pluralize people as well.

[camitava]

Sorry Stuart for my previous post! I did not the fact what u mentioned here! Thanks a lot ...

[rajmirra]

Thanks Stuart for the explanation. It makes sense now. The statement was about several groups of ancient people.

"I think that ancient peoples Had Beleived in many gods" (Brevity, wordy)

and the correct statement is " I think that ancient peoples beleived in many gods.

Thanks everyone for the reply.

R