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Grammar question - less/fewer
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Hi all
Quick question on grammar for you, and I'm a bit ashamed I don't know it myself. Which is correct?
"He was left with one less close friend."
"He was left with one fewer close friend."
I originally thought the first, and I know it's something to do with a quantity versus an amount, but not sure which!
Quick question on grammar for you, and I'm a bit ashamed I don't know it myself. Which is correct?
"He was left with one less close friend."
"He was left with one fewer close friend."
I originally thought the first, and I know it's something to do with a quantity versus an amount, but not sure which!
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It should definitely be fewer as you can count friends 1 friend, 2 friends etc. whereas you can't count things like sugar or flour.
Ps please don't feel ashamed about asking. The English language is difficult and can be extremely confusing.
Thanks - very helpful way to remember
And thank you Gurgles!
Fewer = plural
It's quite simple but enough people get it wrong.
if it was fewer it would read fewer close friends
less mashed potato
fewer chips.
Less of a crowd
fewer people.
Hope this helps.
That means a friend who is less close.
"He was left with one less close friend" means he was left with one friend, who was less close (than before).
GiraffeGirl is correct. The word order in this case is important - OP's second sentence with 'fewer' doesn't work.
Yes but although it's right "10 items or fewer" looks funny to most people. "Under 10 items" would be better.
That would mean only 9 items though
Under 11 then. Not as if anyone cares if you're over IME anyway.
I haven't seen a number limiting till for a while, now you come to mention it - mostly "basket only" tills
surely for that meaning to be so
it would be written
"He was left with one, less close, friend"
the other meaning would be
"He was left with one less, close, friend"
though i wouldn't use the commas
Basket only is limiting in itself though.
It's merely to stop people with huge trolleys going up. Some people are going to have large shops which they don't want clogging up lanes for those who only have a few items, understandably so, though paying is the bottleneck!
I'd usually use a basket but I have hellishly temperamental wrists (and a thumb injury at the moment, which is annoyingly hard to shift, 95% of the time it doesn't affect much though) so unless i'm only going in for a few light items (which is rare, since I normally combine visits for a bit of food with a run for alcohol) I normally use one of the small trolleys... They have about the same capacity.
less means smaller in size
thats the way i was taught!
Don't be ashamed!
As has already been said, it's all to do with countable and uncountable nouns:
"Fewer" for countable nouns - so fewer friends, fewer shoes, fewer cars etc.
"Less" for uncountable nouns - so less money, less air, less love, less space etc.
People often use "less" for countables, but not "fewer" for uncountables because it just sounds so wrong ("fewer money", "fewer coffee"),
Going the other way, "more" works for both types of nouns, there isn't the same division. Good old quirky English, eh?
Have you spotted the grammar geek yet?