Hi Andre,

Ah yes, you are right in that regard, though that is a different usage so I suppose I was referring specifically to people in the plural as I had it here.

That’s an interesting point regarding the relative pronoun; indeed I could imagine we “a people” used with which, that or who. To my ear, I think “who” does sound most appropriate, and indeed in the plural form, though I wouldn’t discount the others as being commonly used. I would agree with that guide, “who” most appropriately goes with the plural here, while which/that sound more natural in the singular, but I’m not sure I could confidently say why or that the alternatives are categorically wrong.

Phil

Hello Phil,

Thanks for all your articles.

I think ‘people’ could be treated as a singular noun in the sense of ‘all the persons who belong to a particular country, community, or ethnic group, as in ‘the Kariera, a people of Western Australia’. A highly-regarded dictionary, for instance, defines ‘reindeer tribe’ as ‘a people which lives by herding or hunting reindeer,…’
‘People’ is in the singular in this example, but what caught my attention was the relative pronoun ‘which’ after ‘people’.
One of my usage guides (PEU) says, ‘we prefer ‘who’ as a relative pronoun with plural forms, and ‘which’ with singular forms.’ [e.g. ‘The committee, who are…’, but ‘The committee, which is…’] This explanation might underpin, as it were, constructions such as ‘a people which lives’. However, ‘a people which live(s)’, ‘a people who live(s)’, and ‘a people that live(s)’ can all be found on the Web.
What do you think about the appropriateness and grammaticality of ‘a people which/who/that live(s)’?
All the best.

Andre

People is a little different as it looks like a group noun, not having the appearance of a typical plural, but it is actually a more regular plural and is, to the best of my knowledge, always treated as a plural. Unless you mean in the case of my example specifically “a group of people”, which I suppose could also confuse as it contains both a group noun and a plural in one phrase!

You’re welcome!