Population, Overpopulation, Underpopulation
2024-01-26
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1Imagine you want to talk about the people in your country or in the world.
2In other words, you want to talk about a population.
3How might you do so?
4In today's Everyday Grammar, we will explore the noun "population."
5You will learn important ideas about the term and how to use it in everyday situations.
6Let's start with a visit to the dictionary.
7If you look in a dictionary, you might wonder about two words that seem closely related.
8We have the noun "population" and the verb "populate."
9Is it important to know about the verb "populate," you might ask?
10Google Ngram Viewer permits us to examine words and phrases in thousands of books.
11We can get a good idea of how often individual words and structures are used.
12When we examine the frequency of "population" and compare it to that of "populate," we reach a clear finding: the noun "population" is much more commonly used.
13Another way to understand the idea is this: you are much more likely to hear "population" in everyday situations.
14Population is a noun meaning the number of people, animals, or other living things of a kind in an area.
15We commonly use "population" as a countable noun.
16In other words, you can add an -s to the end of "population" to get the plural form "populations."
17So, you might hear or read the singular form "population," as in:
18Experts expect the world's population to increase by a very small amount over the next year.
19We use the singular form because we are talking about all the people who live in the world - one very large group!
20How might we use the plural form? In this case, we might use other terms to clarify that we are talking about different groups.
21For example, you might read or hear something like this:
22Elderly and overweight populations face greater risk from the illness.
23In this case, we use the plural form "populations" because we are talking about all of the members of two separate groups - elderly people and overweight people.
24Now that we have explored the noun "population," we should consider the word in terms of broader language situations.
25How do we commonly use the word "population" in everyday speech?
26Let's start by examining the most commonly used words that come before and after "population."
27Since "population" is a noun, we might expect that determiners - words that tell us if a noun is general or specific - should be commonly used before it.
28Google's Ngram Viewer tell us that the word "the" is the most commonly used word before "population."
29So, you are very likely to hear or read something like this:
30Experts said the population declined by 1 percent.
31And what about the most commonly used word after the noun "population?"
32We find that the short word "of" is the most common by far.
33So, you are very likely to hear or read something like this:
34The population of Japan is aging quickly.
35Over and under are two words that can be attached to population to form a new single word.
36Overpopulation describes a situation in which there are too many people.
37Underpopulation describes a situation in which there are too few people.
38Importantly, we generally use "overpopulation" and "underpopulation" as noncount nouns.
39In other words, there is no plural form. We do not add an -s to the end of either word.
40How might you expect these terms to appear in everyday situations? Here are two examples:
41Experts predict overpopulation will result in food shortages.
42Experts predict underpopulation will result in labor shortages.
43In today's lesson, we explored a useful noun and how to use it in everyday situations.
44We will close our lesson with a call to action. Please answer the following questions in an email to learningenglish@voanews.com
45What is the population like in your country or city? Is the population increasing or decreasing?
46In a future lesson, we can provide feedback on some of the writing that we receive.
47I'm John Russell.
1Imagine you want to talk about the people in your country or in the world. In other words, you want to talk about a population. 2How might you do so? 3In today's Everyday Grammar, we will explore the noun "population." You will learn important ideas about the term and how to use it in everyday situations. 4Let's start with a visit to the dictionary. 5Population vs. populate 6If you look in a dictionary, you might wonder about two words that seem closely related. We have the noun "population" and the verb "populate." 7Is it important to know about the verb "populate," you might ask? 8Google Ngram Viewer permits us to examine words and phrases in thousands of books. We can get a good idea of how often individual words and structures are used. 9When we examine the frequency of "population" and compare it to that of "populate," we reach a clear finding: the noun "population" is much more commonly used. 10Another way to understand the idea is this: you are much more likely to hear "population" in everyday situations. 11Countable noun 12Population is a noun meaning the number of people, animals, or other living things of a kind in an area. 13We commonly use "population" as a countable noun. In other words, you can add an -s to the end of "population" to get the plural form "populations." 14So, you might hear or read the singular form "population," as in: 15Experts expect the world's population to increase by a very small amount over the next year. 16We use the singular form because we are talking about all the people who live in the world - one very large group! 17How might we use the plural form? In this case, we might use other terms to clarify that we are talking about different groups. For example, you might read or hear something like this: 18Elderly and overweight populations face greater risk from the illness. 19In this case, we use the plural form "populations" because we are talking about all of the members of two separate groups - elderly people and overweight people. 20Now that we have explored the noun "population," we should consider the word in terms of broader language situations. 21Words before and after 22How do we commonly use the word "population" in everyday speech? 23Let's start by examining the most commonly used words that come before and after "population." 24Since "population" is a noun, we might expect that determiners - words that tell us if a noun is general or specific - should be commonly used before it. 25Google's Ngram Viewer tell us that the word "the" is the most commonly used word before "population." 26So, you are very likely to hear or read something like this: 27Experts said the population declined by 1 percent. 28And what about the most commonly used word after the noun "population?" 29We find that the short word "of" is the most common by far. 30So, you are very likely to hear or read something like this: 31The population of Japan is aging quickly. 32Words connected to population 33Over and under are two words that can be attached to population to form a new single word. 34Overpopulation describes a situation in which there are too many people. 35Underpopulation describes a situation in which there are too few people. 36Importantly, we generally use "overpopulation" and "underpopulation" as noncount nouns. In other words, there is no plural form. We do not add an -s to the end of either word. 37How might you expect these terms to appear in everyday situations? Here are two examples: 38Experts predict overpopulation will result in food shortages. 39Experts predict underpopulation will result in labor shortages. 40Questions 41In today's lesson, we explored a useful noun and how to use it in everyday situations. 42We will close our lesson with a call to action. Please answer the following questions in an email to learningenglish@voanews.com 43What is the population like in your country or city? Is the population increasing or decreasing? 44In a future lesson, we can provide feedback on some of the writing that we receive. 45I'm John Russell. 46John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English. 47___________________________________________ 48Words in This Story 49dictionary - n. a reference book that contains words listed in alphabetical order 50phrase - n. a word or group of words forming a syntactic constituent with a single grammatical function 51specific - n. restricted to a particular individual, situation, relation, or effect