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"?
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1why was user's comment concerning suitability of 百姓 deleted? – user6065 Apr 17 at 7:35
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@user6065, I have no idea, I didn't flag it. – 米凯乐 Apr 17 at 11:18
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seems to be the work of some friendly superuser (Julian ?) – user6065 Apr 17 at 12:45
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Was the comment for or against 百姓? That's the word I thought of – Ben Jackson Apr 17 at 23:48
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@BenJackson, it was for 百姓。 – 米凯乐 Apr 18 at 14:19
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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).
