TBS is debuting a new television series titled 10 Items Or Less. It takes place in a supermarket, which is a good thing, because they'd be run out of town on a rail if it took place in an English class.
See, "10 Items Or Less" is grammatically wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Sure, it sounds right, but it's really "10 Items Or Fewer" and I'm happy to say that our local grocery chain, Price Chopper, has the signage right in their stores.
Today's topic is less versus fewer.Don't you feel a lot smarter? I'll save the "there's no such word as 'alot'" for another post!
Less and fewer are easy to mix up. They mean the same thing — the opposite of more — but you use them in different circumstances. The basic rule is that you use less with 'mass nouns' and fewer with 'count nouns'.
A count noun is just something you can count. I'm looking at my desk and I see books, pens, and M&M's. I can count all those things, so they are count nouns and the right word to use is fewer. I should eat fewer M&M's.
Mass nouns are just things that you can't count individually. Again, on my desk I see tape and clutter. These things can't be counted individually, so the right word to use is less. If I had less clutter, my desk would be cleaner. Another clue is that you don't make mass nouns plural: I would never say I have clutters on my desk or that I need more tapes to hold my book covers together.
Sometimes it isn't obvious if something is a mass noun or a count noun because some words can be used in different ways. For example, coffee can refer to either a mass of liquid or a cup of liquid. If you're responsible for filling the coffee decanter at a wedding, and you're getting carried away, your boss might ask you to make less coffee. But if you're a waiter serving cups of coffee to the tables, and the crowd is waning, your boss might tell you to bring out fewer coffees next time. She means cups of coffee, but it's common to hear that shortened to just coffee as in “Bring me a coffee, please.” Remember that I said mass nouns (like coffee) can't be made plural? In this example, I've made a mass noun plural, but in the process I transformed it into a count noun. So the rule still holds.
Exceptions: It is customary to use the word less to describe time, money, and distance. For example, you could say, “That wedding reception lasted less than two hours. I hope they paid the band less than $400.”
Read the full article at Grammar Girl.
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3 comments:
I think I love you. Less/fewer is one of my pet peeves, right up there with "irregardless" and "reoccuring".
There is a movie by the same name, starring Morgan Freeman. The Bohemian almost wouldn't rent it, "How good can it be, with a title like that?" Then again, the Bohemian would be willing to date someone who knows the difference between who and whom.
I thought all English majors were simply shot on site in Hollywood, along with anyone suspected of reading too many books.
I never understood the who/whom confusion because that one seems quite simple to me. I admit that I sometimes mess up on less/fewer. But I know it and feel remorse!
My pet advertising peeve is, "Our prices can't be BEAT". It's beaten you dumbasses, beaten!
Now let me axe you a question....
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