Everyday Grammar Video: 'Population' in Sentences

to talk about both people and animals. That's a fine idea. We can start by thinking about

how we use population in sentences. Population is a noun. If you have followed our lessons,

you can probably guess that determiners, words that show if a noun is specific or general,

or likely to come before population. We can check an online database for more information.

Google's N-gram viewer, for example, tells us that the word the is the most commonly used word

before population. Grammar books say that the is an article, and articles are a kind of determiner.

So you are very likely to hear or read something like this. Experts said the population declined

by one percent. What might be the most commonly used words after the noun population? Google's

N-gram viewer tells us that the short word of is the most common by far. So you are very likely to

hear or read something like this. The population of Japan is aging quickly. What else can we say

about population? Two related nouns include overpopulation and underpopulation. Overpopulation means

too many people. Underpopulation means too few people. Some countries once had an overpopulation

problem, but with lower birth rates now the problem is underpopulation. Both of these nouns are

generally used in the non-count forms. In other words, we don't generally make them plural.

And that's Everyday Grammar.