One of the headlines on a national TV channel: “Study indicates less HIV cases in Somalia.”
Do you spot the error here? No? Check these sentences you hear often:
“Type it close. It means less pages to xerox.”
“How come there are less women in marketing?”
“The library bought less books this year.”
“I got less marks in Geography.”
In all these sentences “less” is not the word you should be using. Why? “Less” is used for things that cannot be counted, that are measured. “Less” shows amount. A non-countable mass. As in “time” or “money”.
It takes less effort with better tools. I’ll finish it in less time if you stop talking. Talk less and work more. This plant needs less water. Less sugar, please!Look at the words qualified by “less”. Effort, time, talk,water, sugar cannot be counted individually. They are taken as whole “amounts”, the amount of water, the amount of sugar, the amount of talk…
The quantity of what can be counted individually should be indicated with the word “fewer”. “Fewer” points to numbers. We want fewer politicians speaking fewer words. The world would be a happy place with fewer criminals. It’s less likely you’ll win, if you make fewer attempts.
“Less likely”… see that? “Less” – that poor, overworked word is used to quantify an adverb. Since the word is used to anchor both nouns and adverbs let’s not burden it further by attaching it wrongly to countable nouns.
How do you understand “less successful”? Easy, isn’t it? Someone who makes a few billion dollars less than Bill Gates. It is clear who “less successful professionals” are.What if you come across “fewer successful pros”? This means there ARE successful pros but not as many as we think. Their number (taken as a quantity) is less than we thought. “Fewer” here talks of pros, not of “successful”.
So let’s pick “less” when we talk of masses of amounts, choose “fewer” for individually countable things. Like fewer books, fewer children, fewer mistakes, fewer pages, fewer hours…
[We also say, “I’ll take less than an hour to reach“. Hours of course can be counted and should be combined with “fewer”, but a word is missing here. That’s right, “less” should be tagged on to “time”. I’ll take less (time) than an hour to reach. We manage without that.]
So “less HIV cases” is wrong. It is “fewer HIV cases”. We definitely vote for “fewer HIV cases”. Heave a sigh of relief. For both “less” and “fewer” the opposite is “more”. We can’t ask for anything more. It’s more water, more books, more sugar please, more girls in the party. Long live English grammar!
Quiz: less or fewer?
[1] There is _____ employment because there are _______ jobs.
[2] A shower takes _____water than a bath, so take _____ baths and more showers.
[3] I enjoyed his new film ____ than his last one.
[4] I spent ____ time on the first question than the second.
[5] I’ve been there ____ times than I should.
[6] It was ____ difficult than I’d thought it would be.
[7] The project is ____ complicated than the last one.
[8] There were _____ complications this time.
[9] There were ______ students at the college last year.
[10] For some reason I have been getting ______ marks in Math.
[1] There is _less____ employment because there are ____fewer___ jobs.
[2] A shower takes __less___water than a bath, so take __fewer___ baths and more showers.
[3] I enjoyed his new film __less__ than his last one.
[4] I spent _less___ time on the first question than the second.
[5] I’ve been there __fewer__ times than I should.
[6] It was _less___ difficult than I’d thought it would be.
[7] The project is _less___ complicated than the last one.
[8] There were __fewer___ complications this time.
[9] There were __fewer____ students at the college last year.
[10] For some reason I have been getting __fewer____ marks in Math
Excellent, Pranav. You seem to have got the hang of it! So it’s going to be fewer errors for you!
[1] There is __less___ employment because there are __fewer_____ jobs.
[2] A shower takes _less____water than a bath, so take _fewer____ baths and more showers.
[3] I enjoyed his new film _less___ than his last one.
[4] I spent less____ time on the first question than the second.
[5] I’ve been there _fewer___ times than I should.
[6] It was _less___ difficult than I’d thought it would be.
[7] The project is less____ complicated than the last one.
[8] There were _fewer____ complications this time.
[9] There were _fewer_____ students at the college last year.
[10] For some reason I have been getting __fewer____ marks in Math.
Bingo, Shruti, great job!
1.There is less …..employment—- because there are ——fewer—– jobs
2.A shower takes less water than a bath so take …..fewer….. baths and more showers
3.I enjoyed the new film ……less….. than his last one
4.I spent….. less …..time in the first question than the second one
5.I’ve been there a …..fewer….. times than i should.
6.It was ….less…. difficult than i thought it should be.
7.The project is ….less…. complicated than the last one.
8.There were …..fewer…. complications this time.
9. tHere were…… fewer ……students last year.
10. For some reasons i’ve been getting ….fewer….. marks in Math.
10.For
1. There is _ less ____ employment because there are __ fewer _____ jobs.
2. A shower takes _ less ____water than a bath, so take __ fewer ___ baths and more showers.
3. I enjoyed his new film __ less __ than his last one.
4. I spent _ less ___ time on the first question than the second.
5. I’ve been there __ fewer __ times than I should.
6. It was __ less __ difficult than I’d thought it would be.
7. The project is __ less __ complicated than the last one.
8. There were _ fewer ____ complications this time.
9. There were __ fewer ____ students at the college last year.
10. For some reason I have been getting _ fewer _____ marks in Math.
Hi Laya, Hi Kiru, you both nailed them all. Hope you enjoyed cracking the quiz.
] There is__less___ employment because there are ___fewer____ jobs.
[2] A shower takes __less___water than a bath, so take __fewer___ baths and more showers.
[3] I enjoyed his new film __less__ than his last one.
[4] I spent __less__ time on the first question than the second.
[5] I’ve been there __fewer__ times than I should.
[6] It was __less__ difficult than I’d thought it would be.
[7] The project is _less___ complicated than the last one.
[8] There were __fewer_ complications this time.
[9] There were ___fewer___ students at the college last year.
[10] For some reason I have been getting ____less__ marks in Math.