The words person and people are not related etymologically. Person comes from Latin persona, meaning "actor's mask; character in a play; person," while people comes from Latin populus, meaning "the people." The first person ("I" or "we") refers to the person speaking, the second person ("you") refers to the person being spoken to and the third person ("he", "she", "it", or "they") refers to another person or thing being spoken about or described: A person is an individual human being. At least one person died and several others were injured.

Understanding the Context

Everyone knows he's the only person who can do the job. My great-grandfather was a person of some importance here. The amount of sleep we need varies from person to person. A human being is called a person, and while this applies to an actual individual, it also, in grammar, means the type of person — first person being "I/me," second person being "you," and third person being "he/him," "she/her," or "they/them." A person (pl.: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility.

Key Insights

[1][2][3][4] The defining features of ... Any of three groups of pronoun forms with corresponding verb inflections that distinguish the speaker (first person), the individual addressed (second person), and the individual or thing spoken of (third person). From Middle Welsh person, ultimately from Latin persōna (“mask used by actor; role, part, character”), probably via Middle English persoun and Old French persone (“human being”). A person couldn't be in control all the time - right all the time. It was amazing how clearly a person could see things when trouble lurked on the horizon.

Final Thoughts

The place was quiet and secluded, and Sarah would be a sweet person to work for. That wasn't easy to do when a person was physically and emotionally exhausted.