Slotos@feddit.nltounions@sh.itjust.works•Boeing strike: entry-level workers cannot live on their wage. “At Panda Express, they’re making as much as a grade-three mechanic”English
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5 days agoA sleepy morning idea - forcefully convert Boeing into a cooperative. It being strategically important and all.
It’s not “people vs persons” but “those people vs they”.
Conversationally, “those/these” distances you from the group you are talking about, which is humorously weird when it’s your family you’re talking about.
It’s not the meaning of the words, but habitual (and often fleeting) attribution around them that tripped you up.
PS: “People” are uncountable, “persons” are countable. That’s basically the whole difference between the two plurals. Although it’s rapidly disappearing, as “ten people” won’t raise a single eyebrow in a conversation.