All versions are grammatical and easy to understand.

PED

-----Original Message-----
From: SIRAISI Tomio <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, October 16, 1999 1:41 AM
Subject: "a large population" and "the large population"


>Dear ATEGers,
>
>A friend from Australia has commented on the following sentence (1)
>that this is understandable but not grammatically correct.
>But I think it IS grammatical, though it is formal (quite formal?).
>What do you think?
>(1) Which do you think is larger, the population of Tokyo or that of New
>York?
>
>To tell the truth, this is a translation from a Japanese passage.
>An American translator translated into
>(2) Which do you think has a larger population, Tokyo or New York?
>while an Australian translator put it into (3)
>(3) Which do you think has the larger population, Tokyo or New York?
>Can we say both "the larger population" and "a larger population"?
>
>How about the following one?
>(4) Which has more people, Tokyo or New York?
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>SIRAISI Tomio