# Persons vs. People?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/persons-vs-people/378335>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 29, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/persons-vs-people/378335 "2006-10-29T16:34:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/persons-vs-people/378335/21 "2006-10-30T21:34:09Z")

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[QUOTE=acsenray]  
Unfortunately it seems that the cop-isms “male” and “female” (as opposed to “man” and “woman”) have become mainstream usage. Ugh. You hear people on the street as well as reporters saying things like “The suspects are described as three black males.” Why not “black men”? “Male” to me is an adjective; it should be followed by a species. Male what? Humans? Wildebeest?  
[/QUOTE]

Male is better than man in this case since the age of the suspects is usually uknown.

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/persons-vs-people/378335/22 "2006-10-30T21:43:49Z")

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[QUOTE=Sir Prize]  
Male is better than man in this case since the age of the suspects is usually uknown.  
[/QUOTE]

First of all, I don’t buy that this is “usually” the case. This construction is used reflexively. In any case “three men or boys” is not hard to say.

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