From: LeonhartFour | #006
Peoples isn't improper grammar. It's more used to refer to specific groups of people rather than just a generic gathering of people.
Like, you could refer to "The peoples of South Africa" and be talking about the various ethnic groups represented there.
I mean, there's no specific instance I can think of where it's grammatically necessary to use it, but whatever. You CAN use it.
Ahh. This is exactly what I was thinking. I can never remember the hard and fast rules of grammar (even as a Linguistics major) but I was writing a response and it seemed natural to write "the peoples of ancient Greece", and then I stopped and had to think about it for a while because I never really use that word.
Danke.
Oh, and I wasn't asking about the validity, I know for a fact it's a term used even in academic writing.
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