{"id":3266,"date":"2012-03-15T05:00:57","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T09:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=3266"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:41","slug":"less-and-fewer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/less-and-fewer\/","title":{"rendered":"When Less is Less and Fewer, Fewer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fewer,One of my greatest pet peeves about modern writing is the flagrant misuse of the word \u201cless\u201d.\u00a0 I see it everywhere, even so called professional journalists are saying such things as \u201c\u2026we have 20 less laps to go in the race…\u201d\u00a0 Advertisements claim, \u201cNow with less calories\u201d or \u201cWe have less waiting lines\u201d.\u00a0 Less has become the defacto identifier for all quantity comparisons.<\/p>\n

Prior to the eighteenth century, this would have been perfectly acceptable, but since that time it has been accepted that \u201cfewer\u201d is to be used when talking about things that can be counted individually, \u201cless\u201d when taking about items or amounts that are not individually countable.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at some examples.<\/p>\n

If I look into my wallet, I could say, \u201cI have less than twenty dollars in my wallet\u201d or I could say it as \u201cI have fewer than twenty dollar bills in my wallet.\u201d\u00a0 Both would be correct, but \u201cI have less than twenty dollar bills is incorrect because dollar bills can be individually counted, where \u201cdollars\u201d refers to an unknown mix of bills and\/or coin.<\/p>\n

When a race announcer says \u201cWe have less laps to go in the race now…\u201d this is incorrect.\u00a0 He could say, \u201cWe have less of the race to go…\u201d Or \u201cWe have fewer laps to go in the race…\u201d and be correct.<\/p>\n

A bank or store may say, \u201dYou\u2019ll spend less time waiting.\u201d or \u201cWe have fewer waiting lines.\u201d, but \u201cWe have less waiting lines.\u201d is incorrect.\u00a0 See the difference between them?\u00a0 Time is a nebulous thing that cannot be directly counted as used in this sentence, lines can.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure whether this distortion of grammatical rules was borne of ignorance or laziness, but I urge all writers to learn this simple rule \u201cfewer if you can count it, less if you can\u2019t\u201d and apply it diligently to your writing.\u00a0 Especially if you happen to be an advertising writer!<\/p>\n

Who Cares?<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve been planning to write this post for some weeks now, but had it ranked as a low priority until a few moments ago.\u00a0 Just this morning I was approached by a fellow who wants me to be a judge in a writing contest.\u00a0 His invitation included the statement \u201cWith each round we’ll need less and less [judges], since there will be less stories in each round.\u201d\u00a0 I responded with a critique of his invitation, pointing out the less\/fewer error.<\/p>\n

This was perhaps not the most intelligent way to respond; unless of course my world will not end if this fellow excludes me as a judge, and I suspect it won\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0 His reply to me was, in part: \u201c\u2026I am of the opinion that the way something sounds is more important than a rule no one follows anyway. Rules change over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I\u2019m writing this it is Sunday, and I make it a practice never to vilify anyone on Sundays.\u00a0 But it does make a great example of an attitude I\u2019m seeing more and more in \u201cmodern society\u201d; the idea that rules\/laws\/social norms can and should be totally ignored if you don\u2019t like them.\u00a0 The good of the one (you) outweighs the good of the many (society).\u00a0 As a student of human nature and to a lesser degree, history and society, I can tell you that if a society evolves into a collection of individuals bent on pleasing themselves, then society becomes chaos.\u00a0 Want to know why the suicide rate is so high?\u00a0 Want to know why an increasing number of young people are going into their schools and shooting their classmates and teachers?\u00a0 Look to the prevailing value system of society.\u00a0 Ignoring one rule of grammar may not signal the end of civilization, but when you assemble enough grains of sand, you get a beach.<\/p>\n

(He steps down from his soap box and wanders away, shaking his head.)<\/p>\n

Resources<\/h2>\n