"Those are people."
Translation:Ce sont des gens.
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In English, the word "people" can be used to refer to any plural number of persons.
In French, there are different terms for a countable number of people, a non-countable group of people, and a people—a plurality of persons considered as a whole, as in an ethnic group or nation.
the people in the car (countable): les personnes dans la voiture
nice people (non-count): les gens géntils
the Jewish people (singular): le peuple juif
the indigenous peoples of Australia (plural): les peuples autochtones d'Australie
Try to determine the meaning of 'people' in English before translating:
les personnes - specific people
les gens - people in general
le peuple - a population, or collective group of people
1563
Very helpful, but we still have to decide, without context, which version of "people" this is. :/
There is enough context to deduce that the statement does not refer to un peuple, nor does it reference any specific personnes, leaving us with only one option: les gens.
Just as EN "people" cannot refer to an individual person, "les gens" is always plural (there is no singular form).
"Ce" is a pronoun that can mean "it" or "those" (among other things). "Ces" is an adjective meaning "these" or "those" and can only be used with a noun (e.g. "Ces personnes sont des gens").
