The people & the peoples?

The old Soviet Union was made up of people of different religions, different colour, and different languages.

It might be appropriate to say 'The peoples of the ...'

A small county like Latvia would have just one language, probably one religion, and the people would be the same race. You might say 'The people of Latvia...'

The difference between people and peoples is that

"people" means humans considered as a group or in indefinite numbers (e.g.: p[eople were dancing in the street. I met all sorts of people), whereas "peoples" means a body of persons sharing a common religion, culture, language, or inherited condition of life. See my source for more info.

I hope this helps.

People means everyone all lumped in together.

Peoples mean the individual groups of people.

"The people of Europe" = all Europeans as a group

"The peoples of Europe" = individually as Spaniards, Italians, Belgians, French, Germans, etc.

It's appropriate to use The People of this country instead of Peoples of this country.

-The word "People" is already plural, so you don't have to add an "S". Just like the word Children, its not appropriate to use childrens, right?

Hope that helps

---=^.^=---

Nothing, nostradamus