Is the word 'PEOPLES' completely wrong? 'No...'

'People' is a word that a number of speakers of other languages misuse when they speak in English. Many of them, knowingly or unknowingly, use ‘peoples’ where ‘people’ must be used.

The word ‘people’ is a plural term, whose singular form is ‘person’. When you talk about human beings in general, you must use the term people. For example, it is incorrect to say, ‘I don’t like the peoples who talk a lot’. The sentence should be ‘I don’t like people who talk a lot’.

However, you cannot say that the word ‘peoples’ is totally meaningless or non-existent in English. When you use the word ‘peoples’ you are referring to several groups of people and each group shares a common culture e.g. ‘his latest book is about the varied peoples of West Africa’. The native peoples of Canada and their problems. In such sentences both ‘people’ and ‘peoples’ are correct. The latter is generally used where emphasis is necessary.