100 of the largest or the largest 100

[patran]

Dear Teachers

I would like to know which of the following sounds better, 1) or 2), please advise.

1) The stock index includes 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies.

2) The stock index includes the largest 100 domestic and international non-financial companies.


Regards

Anthony the learner

[emsr2d2]

Dear Teachers

I would like to know which of the following sounds better, 1) or 2), please advise.

1) The stock index includes 100 of the largest domestic and international non-financial companies.
There may be, for example, 250 companies which are deemed to be the largest. This sentence shows that an unspecified 100 of them are in the stock index. They may be company 1, 2, 3 etc and then number 26, number 149, number 232 etc, simply making a total of 100, but not necessarily those numbered 1 to 100.

2) The stock index includes the largest 100 domestic and international non-financial companies.
If we assume still that there are 250 companies who are deemed to be the largest, this sentence shows that the top 100 are in the stock index.


Regards

Anthony the learner

They don't mean the same thing. See above.

[patran]

Dear EMSR

So it seems that "100 of the largest" is a very broad sense. As we don't know how many are "the largest", 1,000 or even 2,000. The phrase just means 100 out of the so-called largest stocks.

Regards

Anthony

They don't mean the same thing. See above.

[emsr2d2]

Dear EMSR

So it seems that "100 of the largest" is a very broad sense. As we don't know how many are "the largest", 1,000 or even 2,000. The phrase just means 100 out of the so-called largest stocks.

Regards

Anthony

Yes, I picked a random number (250) just to give the example. "100 of the largest..." does not mean "the 100 largest".