Personal or personnel?
personal is an adjective meaning “Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals)”; personnel is a noun meaning “Collection of people in an organization, such as employees and office staff…”. Use personal as an adjective and personnel as a noun (personal is also a noun: “An advertisement by which an individual attempts to meet…”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) personal is about 4.4 times as common as personnel.
What is the difference between personal and personnel?
| personal | personnel | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | noun |
| Meaning | Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals) Of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals An advertisement by which an individual attempts to meet others with similar interests | Collection of people in an organization, such as employees and office staff, members of the military, etc A human resources department |
| Example | personal values; personal desire | I've just had a letter from personnel |
| Forms | none | personnels |
| Pronunciation | /ˈpɜː.sə.nəl/ /ˈpɜːs.nəl/ /ˈpɜɹ.sə.nəl/ | /pɝ.səˈnɛl/ /pɝsˈnɛl/ /pɜː.səˈnɛl/ |
| In writing | 158 times per million words | 36 times per million words |
Sources: personal and personnel in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of personal and personnel
personal
- 1
Pertaining to persons (human beings as opposed to things or animals)
- 2
An advertisement by which an individual attempts to meet others with similar interests
- 3
Of or pertaining to a particular person; relating to, or affecting, an individual, or each of many individuals
personal values; personal desire
- 4
One's own property or asset
- 5
Dealing with subjects about which one wishes (or people usually wish) to maintain privacy or discretion; not for public view; sensitive, intimate
personal reasons
- 6
Intended for sexual use
personal lubricant; personal massager
- 7
Pertaining to the external or bodily appearance; corporeal; bodily
personal charms
- 8
Done in person; without an intermediary
a personal interview
personnel
- 1
Collection of people in an organization, such as employees and office staff, members of the military, etc
- 2
A human resources department
I've just had a letter from personnel
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, personal or personnel?
personal appears 158 times per million words; personnel 36 times per million words.
personal 158 times per million wordspersonnel 36 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search personal vs personnel?
“personal vs personnel” is searched about 3,600 times a month on Google and 180 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“personnel vs personal”, “personal or personnel”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.