“三個(gè)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(shí)間，在語(yǔ)法上，當(dāng)“人”為可數(shù)名詞時(shí)，persons應(yīng)該是首選的復(fù)數(shù)形式，而“人”當(dāng)不可數(shù)名詞時(shí)應(yīng)該是people。這種做法并沒有成為標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，如今，復(fù)數(shù)persons只有在法律語(yǔ)境中才被認(rèn)為是正確的，偶爾，當(dāng)有意地指“人”為獨(dú)立個(gè)體而不是集體時(shí)，persons也被認(rèn)為是正確的。

PEOPLE和PERSONS

早先人們認(rèn)為

people和person的區(qū)別在于

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(shí)會(huì)說people，

而陪審團(tuán)有12人則用persons。

當(dāng)時(shí)認(rèn)為在指小范圍的具體的人更應(yīng)該用persons。

但對(duì)現(xiàn)在的大多數(shù)母語(yǔ)是英語(yǔ)的人來說，

陪審團(tuán)中有12個(gè)人說成12persons似乎有些乏味，

以美式英語(yǔ)為母語(yǔ)的人會(huì)說陪審團(tuán)有12 people。

在這樣的類似的語(yǔ)境中，

“people”這個(gè)詞已經(jīng)被使用了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間，

而且是更自然的表達(dá)方式。

總結(jié)

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

在絕大多數(shù)情況下，person的復(fù)數(shù)形式應(yīng)該是people，盡管法律術(shù)語(yǔ)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(duì)于現(xiàn)代美國(guó)英語(yǔ)的讀者或講話者來說，“人”的復(fù)數(shù)說成persons似乎有點(diǎn)不自然或牽強(qiáng)。美聯(lián)社和紐約時(shí)報(bào)建議使用people而不是persons，除了在引用和固定短語(yǔ)中。

所以，

“三個(gè)人”更自然的說法

應(yīng)該是

three people

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