"persons"

[ibex]

Hi there!

Our previous English teacher always told us "It's not persons, it's people!"
Anyway, in the last weeks I've come across a couple of examples in books where it said "persons".
Am I right when I assume that "persons" is alright when I want to stress that I mean every single one?

Cheers
ibex

[Keswick (Contributor)]

I hope this makes it a bit clearer:

person = individual human being (man, woman, child) . Plural: persons. Mainly used in formal context.

people = generally used for more than one individual human

[tiorthan]

Am I right when I assume that "persons" is alright when I want to stress that I mean every single one?

Basically yes. This is also why it is usually only found in formal contexts like legal texts because that's really where you have to make a distinction.