What to Use to Make People Use Their Names
People are always asking me “What should I use to make others use peoples in a sentence?” My answer is not always as simple as they might think. Sometimes you will be able to get away with it and other times you will end up with someone saying “Wow, you are such a jerk.”
It has always been easy for me to answer that question the first time. I would say something like, “I do not mind talking to other people in person, but I prefer to meet them online”. I would say something like, “I want to meet you in person, but I would like to chat online.” If you were to ask me now what my top two words to use in a sentence, it would look like this:
I know what you are thinking. It does not sound like much, and many people would just assume that it is an odd choice to use the word people in this way. I am not going to tell you that the word people should not be used in a sentence at all. I am only going to tell you that it should be used sparingly.
If you are trying to impress someone or convince a friend to join your business or attend your party, you can tell them that you will get them to use their names, if they will give you their email address, and that you will use people in a sentence for the reason that it sounds better than people. You can use people in a sentence to emphasize a point, or even to get an audience to take a closer look at what you are presenting. If you were just trying to impress another human being and ask them for their email address, the words people could use would be; name, email address, phone number, etc.
The problem arises when you try to convince someone to use their name and email address with people in a sentence because the word people becomes very clear. You have probably heard this before: “You could use just people in a sentence, but it would sound too formal”.
There is nothing wrong with using just people in a sentence, but it is not appropriate to use the word people in place of the person’s email address. If you were to say something like “This is my best friend John, but you can call him Joe”, you would be saying that John has a dog and Joe is a horse, not both. Just by using people in a sentence, though, you are implying that both men have dogs. and Joe is also implied to be the owner of a horse.
That is fine if you are just trying to get someone to use their name, but you do not want to imply that the person is just another person. In order to use people in a sentence, you should use them to explain something specific that you are explaining, and then explain the name of the person.
Some examples are; “John is going to see a movie tonight and I am going to introduce him to his dog,” or “Jane is not coming to our party until Saturday.” It is okay to use the word people in a sentence when you are explaining why it is appropriate for someone to use his or her name and/or email address in a certain situation. If you want to tell someone that they are invited to an event and that they have to go to a special event, or that there is a specific date, you will have to say “Jane is going to that event”Jane has to go to that event.” This is OK, because when you say Jane, people know who Jane is and that it makes it clear to the reader that it is a particular event that the person attending knows about.
