Less stuff, fewer things

I have the supposedly undesirable habit of persistently using the word “less” where “fewer” would be more “correct”, and I am regularly chastised for it by certain individuals. It would appear, however, that I’m not actually as wrong as I have been led to believe: according to this interesting Language Log post on the less/fewer “rule” “less refers to quantity or amount among things that are measured and to number among things that are counted.” (my emphasis). Hooray! Another silly prescriptivist rule I can gleefully ignore.

And you know those notices at supermarket checkouts that say “5 items or less”, heralding the impending collapse of civilisation with their abuse of the English language? They’re not actually Portents Of The Ungrammatical End Of Days; they are, in fact, perfectly correct.

2 comments 2006-11-16 13:37 Categories: Words