Less or fewer? What a mass!

A few days ago, one erudite Charioteer gently tweaked the tail of another, by querying her use of less, where prescriptively she should have used fewer.

Well, we all know the rules, don’t we?
Fewer for countable nouns, and less for non-countable nouns.

Well actually – no.
And to compound the problem, non-countable nouns are themselves something of a movable feast.

I have consulted many documents on the web, from such extremes as the parade-ground imperatives of “English rules that stupid foreigners must learn” to the reasoned, erudite tones of David Crystal and Geoffrey K. Pullum.   I have determined that the full rules in prescriptive grammar appear to be –

• Use fewer to refer to people or things in the plural.
• Use less to refer to something that can’t be counted or doesn’t have a plural.
• Less can also be used with numbers when they are on their own, and with expressions of measurement or time.
• Less can sometimes [sic] be used with plural nouns in the expressions no less than and or less.

It becomes a little complicated, does it not?

I have also discovered that –

• Records of reputable authors using less in contravention of the rules go back to 888 BCE AD, by no less a personage than Alfred The Great.
• The rules started with the pundits in 1770 and have been enthusiastically promulgated by such dictatorial doyens of prescription as Strunk & White.
• Our linguist friends are of the opinion that pressures to adhere to the rules are a shibboleth and that the choice between the more formal fewer and the more spontaneous less is no more than a stylistic choice.   Or of register, or dialect.

But wait, there’s more.   Non-countable nouns – which are now called Mass Nouns – must never be confused with collective nouns, which can frequently be countable, and there are a fair few nouns in English which can be both countable and non-countable.   Try coffee, for example –

• “There is less coffee on the market than there used to be.”
• “Many coffees are noticeably bitter.”
• “I served fewer coffees today.”
• “I’ll have a coffee, please.”

Sort that lot out!   And then ask yourselves whether people is countable or not. 😀

Author: Bearsy

A Queensland Bear with attitude View all posts by Bearsy