"Person" and its forms.

Hey there, folks.
Now we are going to consider the magical square of the word "person".

Person - People
Persons - Peoples

So let's tear this building apart into the bricks.

Bright flat Person - people.

Person - just any human we want to refer to.

As usual, a culprit is a person who acts the least suspiciously.

People - neutral and the most well-known way to talk about more than one person.

People want bread and circuses.

Dark flat Persons - Peoples. These are much less spread and used in a specific context.

"Persons" is a formal word. You are likely to change it to "people" in almost every situation. Although, it is used in the contexts, concerning law enforcement. This is the case because the word "persons" is more direct toward the ones you are referring to. 'People' usually refers to a more or less general group of human beings, it perfectly goes with ethnicity, race e.t.c.

British people decided to exit European union.

There were 3 persons in the boat, apart from a dog.

Persons who throw out trash to a toilet shall face a big fine.

I have booked a table for two persons: me and my darling one.

"Peoples" always refers to a group of ethics or nationalities.

Russia is rich by its culture and peoples: tatars, ukranians, chuvash, chechens, udmurts...

Population census helps to estimate peoples' population.

We also use "person - persons" in Linguistics, talking about point of view. In particular:

I, We - First person
You - Second person
He, she, it - Third person

Here we go, guys. Hopefully, now you won't get confused by these.

Take care!