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@chirlu Yes. So, I said in German class something like this: Die Leute, die unter diesen Krankheiten leiden, blah blah and the teacher told me --kennst du diese Leute? --Nein. -- Dann sag "Menschen" stattdessen. (grammar errors, to be attributed to me, not to my teacher-- but the idea is that. Moreover, I could be wrong, so "Menschen" and "Leute" here could be exchanged.) –  c.p. Aug 22 '13 at 8:22
@c.p.: Your teacher is right. The doctor could (but must not) say Leute if he speaks about the people he has seen. But it's not appropriate, if e.g. the health insurance reports its statistics –  falkb Aug 22 '13 at 10:29

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Da waren viele merkwürdige Leute.


Menschen, die an dieser Krankheit leiden...

Also here, Leute would be wrong

Irgendwann leben Menschen auf dem Mars.


Die Menschen/Leute wollen wissen, wie es weiter geht.


So... use Menschen if the human aspect bears relevance. Use Leute if you are talking casual and you just mean folks, guys, people.

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7 comments which did not lead to an improvement of the post and would better be discussed in German Language Chat deleted. –  Takkat Aug 24 '13 at 19:03

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