hi,dear host
i'm an english teacher,i read a sentence:The population in that country is all living in the mountain area.In my opinion,the verb "is" in the sentence should be "are",because in the sentence,population is like people,am i right? thank you.
Both are possible, but "is" is used more often.
"the population is" - 319,000 hits in Google
"the population are" - 76,300 hits in Google
It seems "population" can be both a regular singular noun and a collective noun (like "the police").
Thank you,Tom.But in the sentence,they give two choices,one is "is",the other is "are",so i don't know which is better,it gives the right answer "is",i think "are" should be better,but after reading your explanation,i think "is" and "are" are both possible,so perhaps i should tell my students the two both work in the sentence.Thank you,it's my first time to be here,i didn't expect i could get a reply so soon,by the way,i am chinese,i have never been to any English-speaking countries,so i would have many questions to ask here,hope i could get your constant help.
I've often had this problem with tests: I choose A, the key says B. I ask a couple native speakers, and it turns out that both A and B are OK.
