“persons” is a little more formal than “people”. Unlike “people”, it must also be specific (e.g. you can substitute “these people” with “these persons”, but you can’t substitute “people like me” with “persons like me”). Finally, “people” can be used as a singular (“the people of madagascar”), but “persons” can’t.
I think people is a bunch of “person” in the same place, but “Persons” differentiates between different people when you wanna. Like a school of fish or a sea of fishes.
So persons would be referring to multiple individual but separate “people” (a building full of black people, white people and Asian people, and it’s important to differentiate)
Person = (single) individual
Persons = (plural) individuals (The police have identified six persons of interest)
People = (single) a group or population of individuals (We, the people of these United States,…)
Peoples = (plural) many groups or populations (The Israeli and Palestinian peoples have long been at war.)
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