Just remembered a personal bug bear. one person, two people. So where did we come up many persons. It has the same numerical sense and Onelook defines it as the formal or legal plural but it lacks the idea of group or inclusiveness that people contains. I hear it more and more in sentances that used to use people or other substitutes eg any persons arriving rather than any people or anyone. It seems to emphasize the separateness of those involved, a cold word to my mind, not used for it's formal meening but as a symptom of the decreasing connectedness we see today. [stepping down of soapbox e]