• wieson@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    But people is a non-countable word, like water. You don’t have one people, two people.

    When talking about peoples of [place] it’s a countable word.

    Fish is countable.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      People are countable. That’s the whole point of a census. Water can come in any amount, such as 3.5 litres. People come in discrete numbers. You can’t have .5 of a person.

      I think the thing confusing you is that it’s one of those weird English words where the singular and plural word are different. Person/people vs car/cars.

      • Pyro@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        You can still say “waters” though. For example: “The waters of Amsterdam” would collectively refer to all bodies of water in Amsterdam. Another example I came across online was “Don’t forget your waters” which referred to multiple bottles of water.