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> 店は人の多いところがいいです
>
> Book translation: stores are better (to be) located at heavily trafficked
> places.

My question is related to [Relative Clauses: 多い人 vs
多くの人](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/66648/relative-
clauses-%E5%A4%9A%E3%81%84%E4%BA%BA-vs-%E5%A4%9A%E3%81%8F%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%BA)
in which the answerer provides a similar example to the above:

> オーストラリア人の多い場所
>
> Given translation: a place where there are many Australians.

* * *

## 人の多いところ

My understanding is that の marks the subject of the adjective 多い, which can be
replaced が for emphasis.

  1. 人が多い
  2. 人の多い + ところ

Overall, it means "A place with lots of people." Assuming this parsing is
correct, I move on to my next question.

## Can 店は人の多いところがいいです be ambiguous?

ところ means "place" but it can also be used to refer to a point in time.
Therefore, can the above sentence convey the meaning "It's good when the shop
is crowded"?
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grammar relative-clauses
How to parse 「店は人の多いところがいいです」
I've been working with and in Japanese off and on since about 1988, but I'm
not a native speaker, so take this with a grain of salt. :)

## How to parse 店は人の多いところがいいです

> 人の多いところ  
>  My understanding is that の marks the subject of the adjective 多い, which can
> be replaced が for emphasis...  
>  Overall, it means "A place with lots of people."

Your parsing so far is correct.

## Can 店は人の多いところがいいです be ambiguous?

I don't think so.

You point out:

> ところ means "place" but it can also be used to refer to a point in time.

The term ところ used to refer to a point in time is, I think, ~~always~~
_usually_ in the context of a verb phrase:

  * するところ → just about to do
  * しているところ → in the moment of doing
  * したところ → just finished doing

I don't think it refers to time with _most_ adjectives, where instead it
refers to an aspect of something (as in 「彼女【かのじょ】のいい[と]{●}[こ]{●}[ろ]{●}」 "the
good aspects of [my] girlfriend"), or to a location (as in
「蚊【か】のいない[と]{●}[こ]{●}[ろ]{●}」 "a place without mosquitoes", or
「カバの少【すく】ない[と]{●}[こ]{●}[ろ]{●}」 "a place with few hippos").

## Can the above sentence convey the meaning "It's good when the shop is
crowded"?

I don't think so. To convey the sense of _" the point or span in time when a
quality is present"_, I'm much more accustomed to seeing the word とき used
instead:

> 店【みせ】は人【ひと】の多【おお】い[と]{●}[き]{●}がいいです

(Albeit, this isn't "crowded" so much as just "there are a lot of people".)

### Addendum

As pointed out by @[Nameless](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/45630/)
in the comment to this post, there are sometimes cases where `[ADJ]+ところ`
refers to a moment or time, such as 「忙【いそが】しい[と]{●}[き]{●}」 "a busy moment".

I think the reason that doesn't work here with 店【みせ】 and 人【ひと】の多【おお】いところ is
because a 店【みせ】 is inherently a "location", as noted by
@[A.Ellett](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/users/4875/) in the comment on
the question, so ところ in context must mean a place. Meanwhile, because neither
a person nor a person's current state is a "location", 忙しいところ cannot refer to
a "busy place" and still make sense in that context.
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> 店は人の多いところがいいです

A sentence like this is fine only when there is enough context. Without any
context, this is a very vague sentence. My interpretations (in the order they
came to my mind) were:

  1. I (usually) prefer crowded places within a shop/restaurant.
  2. The good point of shops/restaurants (in general) is that I can find many people there.
  3. Shops/restaurants should be located at a crowded location.
  4. When you go to a shop/restaurant, choose one that has many customers.  
(I somehow didn't notice this until @Chocolate mentioned it, but this is also
a natural interpretation.)

In 1, 3 and 4, ところ refers to (three different kinds of) physical places. In 2,
ところ refers to an abstract aspect (cf. [Meaning of ところ in
アメリカのいいところ](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/23738/5010)).

ところ [can refer to a point of
time](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/62181/5010), but in this case I
could not think of a possible interpretation where ところ means time point.
Something like 人の少ないところを狙って店に入る would mean the same thing as 人の少ない時を狙って店に入る.
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