Which to use
“people” is a noun and “people's” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,729
- “people” frequency rank
- #48,581
- “people's” frequency rank
- 59310
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | people | people's |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personas. | Se considera que pertenece a, o está en sintonía con la gente común, en lugar de pertenecer a una élite gobernante. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set people and people's apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: people is /ˈpiː.pəl/ while people's is /ˈpiː.pəlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “people” sits inside “people's”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
people is recorded at frequency rank #10,729, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpiː.pəl/. people's is at rank #48,581, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpiː.pəlz/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 59310, this pair ranks #63,106 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of people vs people's
Shared letters: elop. Private to "people": -. Private to "people's": s.
"people" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "people's" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- people ← epople · peolpe · peopel · peoplle · peopple · pepole · poeple · ppeople
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "people" and "people's" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "people" or "people's"?
Remembering people vs people's
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “people”; for an adjective, it's “people's”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “people” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable