An Exception to the Less-Fewer Rule

When we count things, the rule it to say “fewer,” and when we measure things, we say “less.” So we have fewer apples, but less distance. Since we measure time, normally we say less.

But you can count time, too, and when that happens, you should use fewer. So the guy in this comic has it wrong.

Just be sure you’re counting units of time, not measuring the time itself.

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If you read this blog with any regularity, you know that I consider conciseness to be an important part of good writing, particularly expository writing, (writing to explain things).

I don’t ordinarily let someone else do all the work, either, but I think this gives a good picture of not being concise, and it’s funny.

See my comment about being paid by the word a few posts back.

Lots of people introduce sentences with an adverb when they should use an adjective. Here’s an example of someone doing it right:

Most important, after more than a decade, puberty was finally done with me.

https://www.thecut.com/2019/01/precocious-puberty-patrick-burleigh.html

He didn’t say “Most importantly,” which means “in a most important manner,” not exactly the intended meaning. He means that the event was itself important, not just acting important.

Whenever you see a sentence start with something like “Reportedly,” or “Significantly,” or “Importantly,” you’re probably seeing one of these (incorrect) introductory adverbs.

If you don’t do this, your writing will be tighter and easier to follow.

PS—The linked article that I took the quote from is adult reading. Adult in the adult sense, not the pornographic sense.

Over the years I’ve mentioned all four of these incorrect rules, both in the classroom and on this blog. Use the search box in the upper right to find several mentions of each bad rule.

What English language rules are incorrect?

Never split an infinitive
Never end a sentence with a preposition
Never use a double negative
The pronouns “them” and “they” are always plural, never singular

I had forgotten the source of these rules. I think he was mentioned once in my sophomore English class. But I have long known that these rules were bad. Anyway, here’s an essay from Quora on the subject. It was written by Franklin Veaux, published author and compulsive writer. Thank you, sir, for the reminder.

All four of these rules were made up by one person, Bishop Robert Lowth.

Lowth was a religious scholar who was obsessed with the “purity” and perfection of Latin. He had a big-time fetish for Latin grammar. He considered Latin the ideal language, and believed that English should be more like Latin.

In 1762, he published a book on English grammar that made up a whole bunch of new rules, including the four above. His sole rationale for many of these rules was simply to try to force English grammar to be closer to Latin grammar.

Those rules had never been part of English until he made them up, and outside of prescriptivist grammar taught in school, they never caught on. Today, English grammar experts have largely abandoned teaching any of them.

I ran into a sentence that’s easy to misunderstand even though it’s written “correctly.”

Here’s the sentence:

Ocean temperatures are also much less variable than surface temperatures, which can swing greatly from year to year, and therefore give a clearer signal of global warming.

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10012019/ocean-warming-accelerating-sea-level-rise-hurricanes-climate-change-science-review

What is the subject of “gives the clearer signal of global warming”? Is it surface temperatures or ocean temperatures? Put another way, what does the “therefore” refer to, the “swing greatly” or the “much less variable”?

“Surface temperatures” and “swing greatly” are both closer to the “therefore give,” so that’s what the clause should refer to, right? Nope!

I think the writer of this article, Nicholas Kusnetz, (and maybe his editor) are so familiar with the mechanics of the topic that they assumed the readers would already know that the more stable temperatures are better indicators of change.

They expected the readers to jump over two wrong answers to get to the correct reference, a serious mental jolt. Mental jolts are not good. The sentence should have ended:

… and therefore ocean temperatures give a clearer signal of global warming.

Now the reader can’t get it wrong. And that’s how you should write!

PS—I like to include pictures in this blog when I can, so here’s one from the article. Notice that it describes ocean temps, not air temps.: