>...
>>>>
>>>>The ones that bug me, and you see them everywhere here, are the signs on express lanes at the grocery store: "15 items or less." 15 items or FEWER!]
>>>
>>>How many times has that been said, and recently? :-)
>>>
>>>Trouble is "fewer" is in danger of becoming extinct in our language "There's less and less people using it all the time" :-)
>>
>>That's the one I've pretty much given up on by now - people vs persons. People is singular, persons is the plural of person. Peoples is the plural of people.
>
>Easy. Persons is a more intimate term, implying not a large number.
>
>e.g at a Chinese restaurant: Set meal A for 4 persons. A lift (elevator) rated for max. 8 persons.
>
>People is more general. "How many people are here today?" But the restauranteur would say "How many persons for the table?"

I'm not sure where you got that, but AFAIK, 'people' is used for a number of persons as a group united by a kinship of some sort - national boundary for example. The Canadian people vs the peoples of the world. Persons is just the plural for person. I've never heard any definition that takes into account a numeric dividing line. By large number, do you mean 100, 10000, 1000000?

There were a half million persons at Woodstock and they were a rock lovin' people.