Why do English speakers treat "public" as a singular noun and "people" as a plural noun?
Both of them should be singular, as in the Spanish language. Do you agree?
Both of them should be singular, as in the Spanish language. Do you agree?
Corriger
Favorite Answer
English is english , spanish is spanish , german is german and we should just to fallow ..
And nobody could give an answer about '' why'' in this question ,I think.
Anonymous
There can be one public, but also many publics.
'People' can be treated as a plural noun and also a singular noun. As a plural noun, it's the plural of "person", but it can also be the singular of "peoples". English is weird.
Dele
No because a plural noun means something that is more than one and "people" are a group of individuals, making it a plural noun. A "person" is one individual making it a singular noun.
Shay
The mindset is that there is one person but when there are two you say people. As in "people" is the plural form of "person". Whereas "the public" is making the whole population a singular thing. You aren't talking about the individuals that comprise it, just the society that they form.
Anonymous
When people means the same thing as public, it's singular.
People, however, is usually plural for person.