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Is it right to say like this sentence?

Less babies as they are having, there still increases the population.

I mean

Although they're having less babies, the population still increases.

Eddie Kal
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Whoes who
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1 Answers1

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The first sentence is not correct.

Ignoring the first part, and stripping the adverb "still," the main clause

There increases the population.

Is not an idiomatic way of saying

The population increases.

There are only a few verbs in English which allow rephrasing to make "There" the first word of the sentence, and "to increase" is not one of them. Usually these verbs have to do with "existence, coming in to view, or being in a specific location" as @Araucaria says in this ELU answer, which you can read for more information.

Finally, as "babies" is countable, "fewer" is preferred in place of less, and a continuous form for the verb "increase" would be more natural for a process that is ongoing.

Although they're having fewer babies, the population is still increasing.

randomhead
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James K
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  • There rises now a single tide of tourists passing through... – randomhead Oct 15 '21 at 21:27
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    @randomhead 1. Song/Poem vs formal writing and/or common/accepted speech 2. Different context and use of "there" – TCooper Oct 15 '21 at 21:47
  • @TCooper obviously a song lyric is not the same as standard English—I posted that as a joke—but I fail to see how "there" is used any differently than in OP's question? – randomhead Oct 15 '21 at 22:24
  • whoosh that's the joke going over my head ;) But I would say my song lyric point is moot in this case - let me get back to on why/how it's used differently. I don't have the correct vocab to describe it accurately off the top of my head - aaand you're making me research because I'll (always try at least to) be the first to acknowledge my mistakes - and you've made me uncertain. – TCooper Oct 15 '21 at 22:45
  • @randomhead I've edited to address your point, even if was posted as a joke! "There increases the population" may be acceptable in a folksy song about fishermen, but is isn't prosaic English. It's not acceptable as a standard rephrasing of "The population increases". This makes the OP's sentence borderline incomprehensible. So I've added the word "prosaic" to my answer. – James K Oct 15 '21 at 22:52
  • @TC I guess the question is what makes expressions like the term (from math) "there exists," which is good usage, and "there rises," which is borderline but acceptable, different from "there increases," which is not acceptable. Perhaps the problem is with the article? "There increases a population of [some specific people]" could work, or at least sounds not-as-wrong compared to "There increases the population." (But the verb has something to do with it as well... "there arises a population" would be even better.) – randomhead Oct 16 '21 at 01:42
  • @TC: https://english.stackexchange.com/q/313419/421933 – randomhead Oct 16 '21 at 02:43