People Translated in German Leute, Menschen, and Volk

One of the most common translation errors  made by inexperienced students of German has to do with the English word â€Å"people.† Since most beginners tend to grab the first definition they see in their English-German dictionary, they often come up with unintentionally hilarious or incomprehensible German sentences, and â€Å"people† is no exception. There are three main words in German that can mean â€Å"people†:  Leute,  Menschen, and  Volk/Và ¶lker. In addition, the German pronoun  man  (not  der Mann!) can be used to mean â€Å"people. Yet another possibility is no â€Å"people† word at all, as in â€Å"die Amerikaner† for â€Å"the American people. In general, the three main words are not interchangeable, and in most cases using one of them instead of the correct one will cause confusion, laughter, or both. Of all the terms, it is  Leute  that gets used too often and most inappropriately. Lets take a look at each German word for â€Å"people.† Leute This is a common informal term for â€Å"people† in general. It is a word that only exists in the plural. (The singular of  Leute  is  die/eine Person.) You use it to speak of people in an informal, general sense:  Leute von heute  (people of today),  die Leute, die ich kenne  (the people I know). In everyday speech,  Leute  is sometimes used in place of  Menschen:  die Leute/Menschen in meiner Stadt  (the people in my town). But never use  Leute  or  Menschen  after an adjective of nationality.  A German-speaker would never say â€Å"die deutschen Leute† for â€Å"the German people†! In such cases, you should just say â€Å"die Deutschen† or â€Å"das deutsche Volk.† It is wise to think twice before using  Leute  in a sentence since it tends to be overused and misused by German-learners. Menschen This is a more formal term for â€Å"people.† It is a word that refers to people as individual â€Å"human beings.†Ã‚  Ein Mensch  is a human being;  der Mensch  is â€Å"man† or â€Å"mankind.† (Think of the Yiddish expression â€Å"Hes a mensch,† i.e., a real person, a genuine human being, a good guy.) In the plural,  Menschen  are human beings or people. You use  Menschen  when youre talking about people or personnel in a company (die Menschen von IBM, the people of IBM) or people in a particular place (in Zentralamerika hungern die Menschen, people in Central America are going hungry). Volk This German people term is used in a very limited, specialized way. It is the only word that should be used when speaking of people as a nation, a community, a regional group, or â€Å"we, the people.† In some situations,  das Volk  is translated as â€Å"nation,† as in  der Và ¶lkerbund, the League of Nations.  Volk  is usually a collective singular noun, but it can also be used in the formal plural sense of â€Å"peoples,† as in the famous quotation: â€Å"Ihr Và ¶lker der Welt...† The inscription above the entrance to the German  Reichstag  (parliament) reads: â€Å"DEM DEUTSCHEN VOLKE,† â€Å"To the German People.† (The -e  ending on  Volk  is a traditional dative ending, still seen in common expressions such as  zu Hause, but no longer required in modern German.) Man The word  man  is a pronoun that can mean â€Å"they,† â€Å"one,† â€Å"you,† and sometimes â€Å"people,† in the sense of â€Å"man sagt, dass...† (â€Å"people say that...†). This pronoun should never be confused with the noun  der Mann  (man, male person). Note that the pronoun  man  is not capitalized and has only one n, while the noun  Mann  is capitalized and has two ns.