The Five People You Meet in Heaven is one of my favorite novellas of all time; because of that, it is our subject for today's topic, count & mass nouns.
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| Photo from the January Magazine |
Mass nouns are the opposite. You can't count them. Examples are sugar, coffee, sand. Note that they are always singular, unless you use quantifiers with them.
A cup of coffee.
Two cups of coffee.
So is the word 'people' a count noun, or a mass noun? Is it singular or is it plural?
The word 'people' is confusing as what it represents. People is singular in writing but plural in meaning. The singular form of people is person.
These people are annoying.
People don't know how to see beauty.
People can become a mass noun (which means it becomes singular) when used with a collective noun.
A group of people goes to church. [group is singular, hence the singular verb]
Groups of people attack them. [group here is plural.]
Yet, people may be used as a count noun, too--after all it is plural in meaning.
10 people are procrastinating.
So what is wrong with 'the Five People You Meet in Heaven'? Let's take Strunk and White's approach:
The word people is best not used with words of number, in place of persons.
You've met four people in heaven already. How many people are you to meet yet? One people.
BUT! Note that the title of the novella is protected by artistic licence, which means the title is actually free from the rules of grammar. Well, we had fun with the lesson, right? :D
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William Strunk JR., and E.B. White are authors of the book the Elements of Style.
you're sayin' mitch albom has a license to go against grammatical rules for poetry? but like any other nouns, people changes to person when we are referring to many to one. like there are many people on earth and only one person is meant for you. we automatically change people to person when we are referring to only one. i'm only saying.
ReplyDeleteHello! Thank you for commenting.
ReplyDeleteIn your example "there are many people on earth and only one person is meant for you," The " people is best not used with words of number, in place of persons." approach was followed. That is why the quantifier 'many' is used with 'people,' and the number 'one' with 'person.'
Poetry is the only form of literary art that is not chained to the rules of grammar. It's called the 'artistic license'. That is why when you hear some songs, you'll spot many grammar errors. It's because they have the artistic license, they are free from the rules of grammar just for the sake of art and beauty. Titles of any artistic piece are also protected by artistic license. Wait, let me edit that.