<p>To emphasise the <em>social</em> or <em>citizen</em> aspect of <em>the people</em>, you should use「民眾」or「人民」, or in a combining word, just「民」.</p>

<p>「人類」is not correct, that has the same meaning as English <em>humans</em>. You use it to emphasise the <em>biological species</em> aspect to contrast it with e.g.「犬類」(<em>canines</em>).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-16T20:51:43.423Z
2019-04-16T20:51:43.423Z
dROOOze
<p>I'm trying to express the idea of a government shifting to democracy. The sentence I'm trying to say is "that forced the government to listen to the people", and I can translate it all except "the people". I know the words 人  and 人类 for that sort of thing, but 人 seems too informal and like it's missing something, and 人类 I've learned means humanity, which isn't really the sense I'm trying to get at here. How would I translate "the people"?</p>

<word-choice>
"The people" translation?
# "The people" translation?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-04-16)

I'm trying to express the idea of a government shifting to democracy. The sentence I'm trying to say is "that forced the government to listen to the people", and I can translate it all except "the people". I know the words 人 and 人类 for that sort of thing, but 人 seems too informal and like it's missing something, and 人类 I've learned means humanity, which isn't really the sense I'm trying to get at here. How would I translate "the people"?

**Tags:** word-choice


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2019-04-16. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

To emphasise the *social* or *citizen* aspect of *the people*, you should use「民眾」or「人民」, or in a combining word, just「民」.

「人類」is not correct, that has the same meaning as English *humans*. You use it to emphasise the *biological species* aspect to contrast it with e.g.「犬類」(*canines*).


---

