Can we a have a noun before a gerund phrase?

Question

I have this sentence:

People smoking cigarettes is unhealthy.

What kind of word group is "people smoking cigarettes"? I understand that "smoking cigarettes" can be a gerund phrase and it can act as a singular subject; hence, we use "is," for it, a singular noun.

For example, "Smoking cigarettes is unhealthy."

But what purpose has "people" here? Is it the actual subject instead of "smoking cigarettes"? If people is the subject then using "is" will be incorrect as people is a plural subject.

"People smoking cigarettes is unhealthy" sounds correct to me, but I just don't understand clearly what function do "people" and "smoking cigarettes" have got here. Please help. I'm really confused.

Answer 1

This is a conversational construction, and there are a whole range of statements that take this form:

• People smoking cigarettes is unhealthy
• Cars speeding is dangerous
• Voters distrusting election results is dangerous for democracy

I think the best analysis is that there is an implicit subject of "A situation with..." or "A society with...", and this is the purpose of the plural noun, taking it from a statement about an indivual action to one about a broader problem. For example someone might use the "cars speeding" statement in a discussion about a road outside a school, with the implication being not that individual drivers need to slow down, but that some traffic calming measures need to be installed.

While you might encounter such statements on social media or in news discussions, I would avoid it in your own writing or other formal contexts.

Answer 2

On it's own, without punctuation, this just sounds like bad English. You could be addressing a group and say

People! [to gain their attention] Smoking cigarettes is unhealthy.

Or

People smoking cigarettes are unhealthy

• a general statement of opinion about smokers.