A Correct “Fewer” and a Digression
Occasionally I see a comic that has a grocery store checkout that says “fewer.” Here’s another one. The digression is below the comic.
Okay, digression. This is about the likelihood of picking the fastest line and why we always seem to not pick it. The reason is that line speeds are actually random, and when we pick a line, we compare where we are to the line on each side. That makes the odds of picking the fastest line three to one. So sometimes we do pick the fastest line, but only one out of three times feels worse than it is. I read this in an article in Scientific American, so it must be true.
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A Nice example of Less and Few
There was far less interrupting, angry cross-talk and fewer personal attacks than in the presidential debate.
https://www.npr.org/2020/10/08/921323806/4-takeaways-from-the-mike-pence-kamala-harris-vice-presidential-debate
From an NPR summary of the vice presidential debate.
- Note that “cross-talk,” the word that goes with “less” is singular.
- And the word that “fewer” refers to, “attacks,” is plural.
That’s how you do it, folks.
Hmm. Fewer or Less?
“Less calories”? That can’t be right, can it? We count calories! Ah, but look at the whole sentence.
We measure sugar! The list of those two items allows us to go with the second item.
Well, technically, perhaps, he should have said “33% fewer calories and 33% less sugar,” but I don’t see that happening, except maybe in technical writing.
Yay! A Correct “Fewer”
Another of my hobby horses. This grocery store gets it right. Fewer, not less.
What does your grocery store say???
(FYI, my grocery store says “about 15 items.”)
Counting or Measuring?
The rule is to use “fewer” when you’re counting something and “less” when you’re measuring something. But two things can go either way: time and distance. Usually we use “less” for both, but you can use “fewer” even though it sounds a bit funny.
The moon will be new fewer than 9 hours after the June 20 solstice.
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/annular-solar-eclipse-on-june-21-2020
Of course we gotta have a picture. Here’s one from 2013:
