0

(a) How many people in the world?
(b) How many people are in the world?

Do we have to put 'are' or not?

Also, will we answer like a) or b)?

(a) Many people are in the world.
(b) Many people in the world.

Which is grammatically correct?

Improve this question
3
  • The first seems to be an incomplete question. "How many people in the world do/are/etc what?" The proposed answers are rather facile.
    – Weather Vane
    May 8, 2019 at 17:55
  • Our Contributor's Guide has many good formatting tips, as well as other helpful guidance, such as when to accept an answer. Please read through them.
    – J.R. ♦
    May 8, 2019 at 21:52
  • As an aside, it would be more common to ask, "How many people are there in the world?". And the answer would be "There are billions of people in the world."
    – The Photon
    May 8, 2019 at 22:09

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

“How many people are in the world” is a complete sentence. "How many people in the world" is a sentence fragment; it contains no verb. "How many people in the world" can serve as a noun phrase, for instance in "How many people in the world have a cell phone?" the entire phrase "How many people in the world" serves as the subject of the verb "have".

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .