Person, People, Peoples, and other linguistically similar words

Question

Now, person is singular, and can decline to the plural persons or people, depending on region, level of formality, and nuance. Let's ignore persons for the moment and just focus on people. People, when used as a singular collective noun, can further decline to the plural peoples. For example, I could say that I am a person from Gillikin Country, which has many people, and all of them are part of the peoples of Oz.

Now, my question is this: are there any other words that behave this way? That is to say, are there any other words which have a singular, plural, and collective plural inflection?

Hmm. This might be cheating, but here goes: faculty member, faculty, faculties? — aparente001, Aug 02 '15 at 01:57
I think member would be the singular there. Faculty seems like it's a modifier that would be optional in context. In addition, there's a slew of other options, such as team member, board member, or band member, all of which can be reworded as 'person in/on the X'. — jimbotherisenclown, Aug 02 '15 at 02:15
That absolutely works. It's a strange one, given that the singular and plural are the same, but 'fish, fish, fishes' fits well. — jimbotherisenclown, Aug 02 '15 at 02:29
@tchrist I was under the impression that declension was the noun and adjective specific form of inflection. (Going by Merriam-Webster's definition, anyway.) — jimbotherisenclown, Aug 03 '15 at 01:17
@jimbotherisenclown You aren’t changing the case. Declension is about case. — tchrist, Aug 03 '15 at 02:12
@tchrist. Ah. Thanks for the clarification. I edited the original post in response. — jimbotherisenclown, Aug 04 '15 at 03:00

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 02 '15 at 05:58

1

The example that comes to mind would be money. You have a particular denomination of currency, money, and above that there is monies

answered Aug 02 '15 at 05:58

Yeshe

2,963

I don't think there is a singular countable use for money. Can you say, "I have a money"? – deadrat Aug 02 '15 at 08:50
I'm going to second your comment, deadrat. Money is a collective noun that refers to dollars, yen, cents, pesos, and so on, all of which inflect differently. – jimbotherisenclown Aug 03 '15 at 01:12
Each nation has its own money, so while you can say that all currencies are money collectively there are many monies. That is why there are exchange rates, there isn't yet a singular universal money. – Yeshe Aug 03 '15 at 02:38

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 02 '15 at 06:17

1

Maybe the police, a policeman/woman/officer and polices?

answered Aug 02 '15 at 06:17

Turkan Alisoy

655

the nesting is wrong, it should be officer, police, polices. But that does work. – Yeshe Aug 02 '15 at 06:18

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 02 '15 at 06:17

1

Fish is a good example.

The singular fish refers to a particular fish.

It can also refer to a particular type of fish.

The plural of particular fish is fish.

The plural of particular types of fishes is fishes

answered Aug 02 '15 at 06:17

user298610

119

This is not generally accepted; 'fish' and 'fishes' are usually seen as mere spelling variants, with the latter old-fashioned. You need to add a supporting reference, and to explain why this reference should be ranked more trustworthy than say the usage note Collins give. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 07 '17 at 10:40
Related. – tchrist May 14 '23 at 18:03

Person, People, Peoples, and other linguistically similar words

3 Answers3