<p>Yes Chinese see "人口" as "number of <strong>people</strong>"  and 人口 is measured in number, e.g. China's population is 14 billion.  And 多 and (小) are appropriate adjective for 人口 </p>

<p>English use big or small to describe population, because they are measuring '<strong>number</strong> of people' and 'number' is measured in size. 14 billion is a big number, the biggest number (of people in a country) in the world in fact.</p>

<p>国土 is 'area of a country' , and it is described by size, so 俄罗斯是世界上国土最大的国家 is correct </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-18T14:39:18.380Z
2020-04-18T14:39:18.380Z
Tang Ho
<p>口 may be used as measure word of 人. For example, you may heard 我家有五口人。 (There are 5 people in my family.)</p>

<p>口 may also used as the same meaning of 人. For example, 我们一家三口去武大看樱花<sup><a href="https://m.chinanews.com/wap/detail/zw/sh/2020/03-04/9113948.shtml" rel="nofollow noreferrer">*</a></sup> (My whole family, 3 people, (will) go to Wuhan University to see cherry blossom.) </p>

<p>Back to the question about 人口. Here is another example: 2000年，全世界有61亿人口。<sup><a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/zh/news/population/world-population-prospects-2019.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">*</a></sup> (By 2000, there are 6.1B people in the world) We can see that 人口 may be translated into <em>people</em> here but not <em>population</em>.</p>

<p>As you would say "more people" / "less people", but not "huge people". You should use 人口最多 / 人口最少 in that context.</p>

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2020-04-20T10:23:57.917Z
2020-04-20T10:23:57.917Z
tsh
<blockquote>
  <p>中国是世界上人口最多的国家.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Why is 人口 in this sentence 多, not 大? In English way of thinking (or my English way of thinking), a population is something that can be "huge" rather than "much"/ "many". Is Chinese way of thinking different? Is 人口 really as shape of the characters says - "mouths of people" rather than "population" in the English sense? People are many, but population is huge. Can I say "中国是世界上人口最<em>大</em>的国家"?</p>

<p>I've got one more question about this structure. Countries and cities can be big in two senses: in population or in territory. This sentence says "China is the biggest country in the world, in the sense of population". I guess I could change the category into the other one and say: 俄罗斯是世界上国土最大的国家. I put 大 here. Is it correct? Would 多 be correct?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-18T15:24:20.987Z
"中国是世界上人口最大的国家" As a joke, this sounds like "China has the biggest number of people in the World with big mouths" :)
Wayne Cheah
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-20T09:58:53.097Z
中国是世界上人口最大的国家: China is the country whose people has largest mouth in the world. :)
tsh
<word-choice><vocabulary><phrase><adjectives>
Why is 人口 in this sentence 多, not 大?
# Why is 人口 in this sentence 多, not 大?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-04-18)

> 中国是世界上人口最多的国家.

Why is 人口 in this sentence 多, not 大? In English way of thinking (or my English way of thinking), a population is something that can be "huge" rather than "much"/ "many". Is Chinese way of thinking different? Is 人口 really as shape of the characters says - "mouths of people" rather than "population" in the English sense? People are many, but population is huge. Can I say "中国是世界上人口最*大*的国家"?

I've got one more question about this structure. Countries and cities can be big in two senses: in population or in territory. This sentence says "China is the biggest country in the world, in the sense of population". I guess I could change the category into the other one and say: 俄罗斯是世界上国土最大的国家. I put 大 here. Is it correct? Would 多 be correct?

**Tags:** word-choice, vocabulary, phrase, adjectives

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: "中国是世界上人口最大的国家" As a joke, this sounds like "China has the biggest number of people in the World with big mouths" :)  
> **username_2**: 中国是世界上人口最大的国家: China is the country whose people has largest mouth in the world. :)  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-04-18. Score: 3

Yes Chinese see "人口" as "number of **people**" and 人口 is measured in number, e.g. China's population is 14 billion. And 多 and (小) are appropriate adjective for 人口

English use big or small to describe population, because they are measuring '**number** of people' and 'number' is measured in size. 14 billion is a big number, the biggest number (of people in a country) in the world in fact.

国土 is 'area of a country' , and it is described by size, so 俄罗斯是世界上国土最大的国家 is correct


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### Answer by username_2 on 2020-04-20. Score: 1

口 may be used as measure word of 人. For example, you may heard 我家有五口人。 (There are 5 people in my family.)

口 may also used as the same meaning of 人. For example, 我们一家三口去武大看樱花[\*](https://m.chinanews.com/wap/detail/zw/sh/2020/03-04/9113948.shtml) (My whole family, 3 people, (will) go to Wuhan University to see cherry blossom.)

Back to the question about 人口. Here is another example: 2000年，全世界有61亿人口。[\*](https://www.un.org/development/desa/zh/news/population/world-population-prospects-2019.html) (By 2000, there are 6.1B people in the world) We can see that 人口 may be translated into *people* here but not *population*.

As you would say "more people" / "less people", but not "huge people". You should use 人口最多 / 人口最少 in that context.


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