Getting less

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Anonymous

#279022 Wed, 11 Oct 06 09:38 AM

It has a population of 2000 people but every year its getting less.

This sentence came up in a text book but sounds strange to me. Any ideas? To me its getting less sounds unnatural - its getting smaller or its decreasing.

Anonymous

Yoong Liat

#279086 Wed, 11 Oct 06 01:10 PM

Learning English | BBC World Service | News about Britain

Because, with young populations getting less here, they fear of decreasing in applicants for the school and are thinking of introducing both sex.

It has a population of 2000 people but every year it's getting less.

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Veteran Member (6,011)

Yoong Liat

Learning English

Inchoateknowledge

#279090 Wed, 11 Oct 06 01:14 PM

to get less means to decrease in number

Inchoateknowledge

Joined on Wed, May 3 2006

Senior Member (2,528)

Beep! Beep! :)

Numbers

milky

#279097 Wed, 11 Oct 06 01:45 PM

the population is getting smaller

the population is shrinking

milky

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004

Senior Member (3,149)

Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

nona the brit

#279228 Wed, 11 Oct 06 07:06 PM

That quote is ungrammatical.

The fact that it comes from a BBC English learning site does not mean it must be correct - this was a comment added by an English learner.

nona the brit

Joined on Wed, Sep 22 2004

England

Veteran Member (11,355)

The name says it all.

MrPedantic

#279326 Wed, 11 Oct 06 11:52 PM

Hello Anon

1. It has a population of 2000 people but every year it's getting less.

The first "it" refers to something outside the sentence (a village, a prison, an ESL website – call it X), but the second "it" refers to "population".

However, there is a possible momentary confusion on the listener's/reader's part, if X is taken as the antecedent of the second "it" also.

Hence perhaps the apparent strangeness.

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Wed, Oct 13 2004

Veteran Member (12,053)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

ESL websites

Grammar Geek

#279371 Thu, 12 Oct 06 04:06 AM

Does "getting less" work with "population"? It sounds so odd to me.

Every year it's decreasing, every year it's getting smaller, every year it shrinks. But "less" seems an odd pairing with "population."

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,592)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Yankee

#279399 Thu, 12 Oct 06 05:29 AM

I'm with you, GG. The use of "getting less" sounds really strange to me in this sentence. Although "getting smaller" definitely would be better, it's not just the use in connection with "population" that bothers me here. When "getting less" is used, the word "get" usually has a meaning similar to "receive" or is followed by additional words. I think that's what irritates me the most about the usage in the sentence.

- Nowadays we're paying more and getting less.
- I've been getting less sleep than usual.
- He's getting less and less enthusiastic about the idea.