People's belongings or peoples' belongings?

Question

I refuse to look after other people's belongings.

I refuse to look after other peoples' belongings.

Which is correct?

We're talking about the belongings that potentially belong individually to every other person.

Not a dupe of 'people' vs 'peoples' as this is talking about the possessive of 'peoples'.

I would lean to the first, as people in itself is a collective term, therefore it need not be pluralised. Therefore the belongings of anyone else would be "other people's" belonging. However I cannot back this claim up, I would be intrigues to see other responses — nickson104, Jul 02 '15 at 09:00
possible duplicate of "People" or "peoples" when referring to an indigenous population? — deadrat, Jul 02 '15 at 09:07
... and once the people / peoples issue is settled, the remaining point about correct apostrophisation is genref. — Edwin Ashworth, Jul 02 '15 at 09:51

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 02 '15 at 09:08

People as a plural of person is a mass noun, and we don;t use a plural -s. So when forming a possessive, we only add the 's:

I refuse to look after other people's belongings.

However, people can also be countable, when we refer to a(n ethic) group of persons: the Belgian people, the British people. Although a bit contrived, you could be referring to belongings that are the property of such groups.

For example:

The artwork from the Acropolis belong to the Greek people. Some of them are now in the British museum, but I don't see why they should look after other peoples' belongings.

People's belongings or peoples' belongings?

1 Answers1