“三個人”到底是three people還是three persons?


There was a time in history when it was put forward that grammatically, persons should be the preferred plural any time more than one person was referred to as a countable noun, and people should be preferred for uncountable nouns. That practice did not become standard, and nowadays, the plural persons is only considered correct in legal contexts and, occasionally, when deliberately referring to humans individually rather than collectively.

歷史上曾有一段時間,在語法上,當“人”為可數名詞時,persons應該是首選的複數形式,而“人”當不可數名詞時應該是people。這種做法並沒有成為標準,如今,複數persons只有在法律語境中才被認為是正確的,偶爾,當有意地指“人”為獨立個體而不是集體時,persons也被認為是正確的。

PEOPLE和PERSONS

早先人們認為

people和person的區別在於

people是一般用法

而persons是具體用法。

因此,人們提到

聚集在一起的300人時會說people,

而陪審團有12人則用persons。

當時認為在指小範圍的具體的人更應該用persons。

但對現在的大多數母語是英語的人來說,

陪審團中有12個人說成12persons似乎有些乏味,

以美式英語為母語的人會說陪審團有12 people。

在這樣的類似的語境中,

“people”這個詞已經被使用了很長時間,

而且是更自然的表達方式。

總結

The plural of person should be people in the vast majority of contexts, although legalese uses the plural persons.

在絕大多數情況下,person的複數形式應該是people,儘管法律術語中使用的是persons。

To the modern reader or speaker of American English, persons seem a little unnatural or strained. It's understandable that the Associated Press and The New York Times recommend using people over persons except in quotations and set phrases.

對於現代美國英語的讀者或講話者來說,“人”的複數說成persons似乎有點不自然或牽強。美聯社和紐約時報建議使用people而不是persons,除了在引用和固定短語中。

所以,

“三個人”更自然的說法

應該是

three people


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