52 Grammar Gaffes

Happy New Year! I like to start out every year with a fresh set of goals. In 2010 I saw the success of my freelance work, solved a Rubik's Cube in under two minutes and I networked like crazy and met some smart and kind people.

I'm not sure what 2011 holds, but I'd like to gear at least one of my resolutions towards a hands-on thing. So, each week I'll post something grammar-related that I find many people (adults, too!) overlook. Here's hoping that I refresh your elementary school language arts memories with crash course in commonly misused terms and phrases. This week: Less v. Fewer.

Disclaimer: While you can't take the grammar rules out of the girl, I'm not the kind to interrupt people mid-sentence and fix their syntax. I may, however, on occasion, comment on word choice or pronunciation, but I like to leave my ranting in print here at godawfulgrammar.

Less v. Fewer

While "less" and "fewer" have the same meaning, they have very different uses in context.

The rules are: 

Use less with qualities or quantities that cannot be individually counted.

Use fewer with objects that can be counted one-by-one. 


Some examples:

Express Lane: 20 items or fewer. (you can count items!)

A tweet must be fewer than 141 characters. (you can count characters)

If you put less water in the tub, it won’t overflow. (you can’t count water individually—and it doesn’t have a plural)

The rosebush has fewer buds this year than last. (you can count rosebuds)

As he got older, he listened to less music. (you can’t count music individually—and it doesn’t have a plural)