In the movie Thor Ragnarok the sentence
Asgard is not a place, it's a people.
is used by multiple characters multiple times but shouldn't it be
" Asgard is not a place, it's the people"
Am I right or wrong?
cinemadialoguegrammar
In the movie Thor Ragnarok the sentence
Asgard is not a place, it's a people.
is used by multiple characters multiple times but shouldn't it be
" Asgard is not a place, it's the people"
Am I right or wrong?
Best Answer
Grammatically either would be valid, but not quite the same.
The people would mean a particular group of people, which in the context would mean "the people who live in Asgard".
A people would mean a particular group of people defined by some line of nationality, ethnicity etc. As in this definition:
It can use the indefinite article because there are of course other "persons forming or belonging to a particular group".
The two are so close that it would have been reasonable to use either, but the choice of "a people" gives a better pairing to "a place" and so was probably the better choice.