Is “people is” ever correct?
I heard someone say “people is.” I thought it should always be “people are.” Is there any situation where “people is” is correct?
2 answers
Answers and discussion
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I think you’re right — it should be “people are.” “People” is plural, so “people is” doesn’t really work in standard English. You might hear it sometimes in casual speech, but it’s basically just a mistake.
In my opinion, “people are” is almost always correct.
“People” is plural, so we say people are.
The only rare case is when “people” means a nation/group (like “a people”), then you might see “a people is…”, but that’s pretty formal and not common in daily English.
So yeah, just stick with people are and you’re good.