>>>>
>>>>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,
>
>From speaking English all my life!
>
>>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.
>
>Aren't you mistaking people for "a people" as in a nation, as you say. People is also the collective plural of person, as in "A lot of people attended the rally", "there were so many people dead at Woodstock that the fields were red with their blood"

No, I don't think so. I am not convinced that people is a collective plural of person, or at least I should say that it wasn't intended that way. Yes, it is being used that way in common speach, but so are a lot of things that aren't correct.
>
>If you say "there are a lot of persons here" it somehow implies that you refer to their individaulity at the same time.

Why is it really any different than saying "a lot of apples", or "a lot of cars". A lot of persons just means that - a large number of individual persons. Collectively, they may well form a 'people', but they are still individual persons, regardless how many of them there are.

A lot of persons attended the rally. They may well form a subculture of persons who love car racing, and that subculture may well be referred to as a people united by a commonality. But they are still persons who collectively make up a people.