If English is not your first language, you can safely exclude “persons” from your vocabulary. The term seems to stem from crime reporting, where there may be one or more… persons. Because the singular and plural are different words, you are stuck with either “The crime was committed by one or more people” or “one or more persons”. I think “persons” is slightly less bad.
The difference largely depends on context.
*Fowler’s* has an interesting entry on the matter.
In a legal context, the difference can be important. It may also be used in formal speech to avoid ambiguity when referring to individuals operating separately rather than a group.
There’s also the distinction of a people (the people of Iraq, the Jewish people, etc.) Interestingly, I’ve heard *persons of color* is gaining traction as an alternative to *people of color*.
In the end, it’s a matter of style (style guide, I mean). Consult APA, MLA, Chicago, OUP, etc. and stick to the applicable one. That’s my advice.
People refers to a group e.g those people, we the people, people person.
Persons refers to more than one individual who may or may not be part of a group. It is largely used in formal context when ambiguity can arise from grouping people or persons together.
Unless you work in law, science or journalism you are unlikely to ever need to use “persons” as the distinction is not needed in most situations
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