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Understanding the difference between commonly confused words will help you avoid making errors in English usage. Let’s examine the difference between the following:
Both fewer and less mean a smaller number or more limited amount of something in magnitude or degree: they are both opposite in meaning to the word more. Fewer and less are not interchangeable, however, as there are significant differences in how these two words are used.
fewer
Fewer is used for people and with plural or count nouns, meaning countable things. Count nouns can form a plural and can be used with an indefinite article (a or an).
The store sold fewer bicycles this week than it did the previous week.
Jack’s department came up with fewer ideas for new products than Sally’s division did.
I have fewer brothers than my cousin Denise does.
If the number of people or things is one, however, we typically use less:
That’s one less thing to worry about.
less
Less is used for singular or mass nouns, which denote uncountable things. These nouns lack a plural and are not used with an indefinite article. Less is used for singular nouns that aren’t normally counted or that can’t easily be counted. It’s used for material in bulk, like sand, and for abstractions, like evil or hope.
I hope there will be less rain this week.
Try adding a bit less salt the next time you make that soup.
Essentially, fewer is used when you mean a smaller number of individual things, and less when you mean a smaller quantity of one thing: fewer cars on the road means less traffic.
So you would say, “I ate less candy this week,” but “I ate fewer bon bons this week.” You would also say, “I drank less water today,” but “I drank fewer glasses of water today.” Candy and water are mass nouns, whereas bon bons and glasses are plural nouns.
☛ A trick to help you determine whether to use fewer or less is to substitute the word with the following phrases and see if it makes sense:
If the phrase not as many works, then use the word fewer:
Not as many cookies/fewer cookies.
Not as many parties/fewer parties.
If the phrase not as much works, then use the word less:
Not as much pressure/less pressure.
Not as much homework/less homework.
There are exceptions to the above rules, however. Less is also used with plural nouns denoting measurements of distance, age, and time, even though these things are countable. In such cases, however, the things are being treated as a whole, as a bulk quantity, or as a single unit, and the word less is followed by than. So we should write “less than six weeks,” and not “fewer than six weeks,” because the weeks are being considered as a single time period, and not as six individual things.
The holidays are less than two weeks away, and the hotel we’ve booked is less than fifty feet from the beach!
He’s so wrinkled that I can’t believe he’s actually less than 60 years old!One also sees less used with discussions of money and weight when the quantity is being considered as a single bulk amount, rather than individual dollars or pounds.
It’s been quite some time since Drew weighed less than three hundred pounds.
Henry has less than $50 in his bank account.However, it would be correct to say, “Henry has fewer than 50 one-dollar bills in his pocket,” because in this case you would be considering the bills as individual units.
Use less than, not fewer than, when referring to percentages, fractions, temperature, and speed.
Less than a quarter of those contacted participated in the survey.
I assure you, officer, that I was going less than 100 kilometers an hour!
Take your hat with you: it’s going to be less than 10 degrees out today.Less is also used with statistical enumerations, because they’re often considered as aggregate amounts rather than individual numbers:
The population of my hometown is now less than 100,000.Some usage experts consider it acceptable to use less with count nouns when less occurs as part of certain phrases, such as or less, or no less than. Sticklers would probably prefer to use fewer in the following sentences, especially in formal contexts. In informal usage, however, it’s perfectly acceptable to say or write:
Please respond to the question using fifty words or less.
The sign above the store’s express checkout read: “Ten items or less.”
No less than two hundred people were invited to Sally’s wedding.
The phrase more or less, meaning to a certain extent or speaking imprecisely, is always correct: we never say “more or fewer.”
I baked a hundred cookies today, more or less.To sum up, let your ear guide you when deciding between less and fewer. Choose the word that sounds most natural for each sentence. In general, if you use fewer with plural nouns (fewer cats, fewer spoons, fewer books), and less with singular nouns (less equipment, less water, less music) and before than, you’ll be all right.
Photo credits:
Photo 1: Image by Willfried Wende from Pixabay
Photo 2: Image by Pexels from Pixabay
Photo 3: Photo by George Redgrave on Flickr CC BY-ND-2.0