What's the difference?

I am confuesed about the difference between 'gentes' in refrence to people and 'personas'. Can someone help me out? شكران

I think "la gente", for example, refers to a group of people with similar characteristics while "las personas" refers to a bunch of individuals.

la gente is a singluar noun, so it's "gente" instead of "gentes". Robert is correct in that it refers to a group of people with similar characteristics. An example would be "the people of South America", you would use "la gente de Sud America.'" Personas also means people, and is the plural of persona (person). It is used also to refer to people (or persons), such as: There are many people here today - hay muchas personas aqui hoy. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure this is the correct usage.

Thank you very much!! Great help. I've been wondering about that for while.

I realize this is an old thread, but is the fact that it's a singular noun the reason to say "mucha gente viene" rather than "mucha gente vienen"? 

I'm so tempted to think the mucha makes it plural. But then again, it's "gente" not "gentes." There isn't even such a word as "gentes" in Spanish, is there?

¡Gracias!

Mucha gente viene = Many people come. I agree, intuition says to use the 3rd person plural form, vienen, but you are right: the subject is people (singular) so the verb must be singular as well.

Although English conjugations are much less specific, the same logic applies: "Many people come to Disneyland every year." 

One more use that is common especially in Peru is:

El es buena gente. -- He is a good person.

 

- Este pueblo tiene las mejores personas, las mejores gentes.

Volviendo a la pregunta original (¡de hace cinco años!), es la primera vez que veo la palabra "gente" en plural.