Choosing to say fewer or less in English is a grammar point that native speakers get wrong as well as foreign learners. This is not because it is complicated, but because less often sounds simpler or more natural than fewer. And (as with much in English language) not everyone pays close attention to the rules. There are only a few simple things you need to know to use less correctly, though. These rules are discussed below, with an exercise to follow.:
Less is used for qualities and quantities that cannot be counted individually. This means use less for uncountable nouns, or mass nouns as they are also known, such as liquids, emotions and time.
Fewer is used for countable objects, that is anything that can be counted one by one.
For example:
- There was less rain today than yesterday.
- There were fewer stray cats last year.
- I had less free time to complete my homework than Jim.
- The small elephant costs less than the big one.
- Sally spent fewer hours on the computer after she broke the keyboard.
- We have fewer pound coins than pennies.
Using fewer for uncountable nouns
In the above example we can say fewer when referring to specific coins. We often make an uncountable into a countable noun by referring to a container or unit. For example:- There was less ice cream in the tub .
but
- We had fewer ice cream cones than before.
Less in common English
English speakers frequently make mistakes with less and fewer, which you can even find in print. This is because fewer is being used less in modern language, with many people simply using less for everything. It may not be because the speaker is ignorant of the rules – less is a shorter and more common word, so it is popular in advertising and television. A common example of an error is using less for people, and nouns referring to people. For instance you may see less people – which should be fewer people, as people is countable.Other uses of less
Less can be used to indicate something is not as much one thing as another, for instance ‘The announcement was less a confession than an accusation.’ Less than may be used with some adjectives for a less direct negative statement. For example ‘The politician was less than honest about tax increases.’ In a very British style, it avoids directly stating that the subject did something negative.Fewer or less exercise
Choose fewer or less to complete the following sentences. Answers can be found below.- The university has _______ students this year than last.
- Lucy takes _______ care of her siblings than is good for them.
- The DJ on this radio station plays _______ rock songs than he used to.
- Stuart has _______ ideas than everyone else.
- Celery has _______ calories than chocolate has.
- The students have _______ time to eat lunch now that the class periods are longer.
- Does England have _______ culture than Scotland?
- She has _______ responsibilities now that her mother has come to help.
- The DJ on this radio station plays _______ jazz music than he used to.
- The express line is only for shoppers with ten items or _______.
- There are _______ men in your family than women.
- Amy dumped me, but that doesn’t mean I like her any _______.
- If you turn off the light when you leave the room, you’ll use _______ energy.
- There is _______ graffiti in Hove than there is in Brighton.
- There are _______ tourists around this year because of the snow.
- Maybe he would worry _______ if he planned more.
- There are always _______ buses on Sundays.
- She has _______ interest in flowers than he does.
- The students have _______ minutes to eat lunch as the classes are longer.
- The government has recommended eating _______ salt.
- I hope _______ snow falls this year.
- We saw _______ seagulls on the beach than yesterday.
Answers
- Fewer – because students are countable.
- Less – because care is uncountable.
- Fewer – music is uncountable, but songs are a countable unit of music.
- Fewer – ideas are countable.
- Fewer – calories are countable.
- Less – because time is uncountable.
- Less – culture is uncountable.
- Fewer – responsibilities are countable.
- Less – music is uncountable.
- Fewer – items are countable. However you will often see less used in this situation, because it is shorter and therefore clearer to shoppers.
- Fewer – men is countable.
- Less – we are qualifying like, which is uncountable.
- Less – energy is uncountable.
- Less – graffiti is uncountable.
- Fewer – tourists is countable.
- Less – we are qualifying worry, which is uncountable.
- Fewer – buses are countable.
- Less – interest is uncountable.
- Fewer – minutes are a countable unit of time. Although this is quite an unnatural sentence this way.
- Less – salt is uncountable.
- Less – snow is uncountable.
- Fewer – seagulls are countable.
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Thank you for a very insightful article on a matter that I have not given thought to before.
You make a very useful distinction between countable (fewer) and uncountable (less). But I am not sure that you have nailed it precisely. You allow an exception for some nouns, such time and money, which you say are uncountable despite that they are numerable (my word, not yours). Yet you exclude from this category the word people, which I suggest is more like time than hours.
I wonder if the distinction is more to do with collective nouns rather than uncountable ones. So, we use fewer with pieces of pie and less with the pie itself;
As an illustration, compare your exercise 8:
She has _______ responsibilities now that her mother has come to help.
She has _______ responsibility now that her mother has come to help.
And here’s a curved ball for you:
We catch _______ fish and shear _______ sheep.
Hi Andrew,
As with any rules I think there will tend to be exceptions or times where the practice is bent, and I suppose it should be said that in practical use people aren’t consistent with this (I know many grammarians would get upset seeing people use fewer or less “incorrectly”, but if enough people are doing it then who are we to judge some flexibility!).
But I’m not sure that I quite follow your distinction, as time and money are uncountable while people is countable, so they both stick to the rule. Perhaps I didn’t clarify it properly, but my intended point was not that time and money are exceptions, only that they might trip people up, especially as when you use countable nouns related to them the system changes (i.e. “I have less time” but “I have fewer hours”).
The same would apply to your pie example: when we say “fewer pieces” of pie (or “fewer pies”), we would refer to countable instances of pie, whereas “less pie” would refer to pie as an uncountable substance. Similarly responsibilities is a countable plural but responsibility in that context would be the uncountable abstract usage. Your final example could indeed be a curveball though; technically we’d be referring to plurals but I could see how it might be argued other ways!
Phil
You pick up the gauntlet very fast!
You say “But I’m not sure that I quite follow your distinction, as time and money are uncountable while people is countable,” I am unclear as to how “people” is countable. Surely this is no more countable than money? How many people are there in a crowd? And just to confuse: does it cease to be a crowd when there are fewer than or less than 3 people? (That’s a cheat, as the object of comparison is a number, not the “people”, and “less than” is the proper mathematical expression).
I note that you did not respond to my suggestion that collective noun is more appropriate than uncountable. I don’t have your skills to make a case for this, but it goes against the grain (for me, at least) to call money uncountable, as its main property is that it is more countable than barter.
Thank for appreciating my reference to fish and sheep – and for updating my use of curved ball. It used to be that in my day (uncountable number of, ago), but I guess the Americans have once again put their own spin on the English language.
I will let you have the last word on this matter, as I think I have exhausted my repertoire.
All the best:)
Ah I see the confusion Andrew – countable/uncountable is actually a specific grammar definition, whereas collective doesn’t give us that. We can separate nouns into groups of either countable or uncountable depending on how they behave grammatically. I keep thinking I have an article on this but don’t, so I’ll produce a full article soon.
Essentially, the difference between countable and uncountable can be noticed in a few different ways, but the bottom line is whether or not the specific noun takes a plural. Countable nouns are ones that can be preceded by a number and fit the question “how many”, whereas uncountable ones do not have plurals or follow numbers, and fit the question “how much”. So we can say “three people” but not “three moneys” (unless you’re talking about different currencies). While you’re right that the concept of money does relate to countable properties, grammatically, the noun does not – if you wanted to quantify money you’d need a different noun, e.g. “three pounds”.
I have definitely learned something new today! I thought I was quite literate and a fluent native-English speaker, but I was ignorant of “countable nouns”. In my head, the number became principal (so to speak) and the noun became a subordinate qualifier (like an adjective). I am not sure that the concept of “countable nouns” is better, but it is clearly part of the collective wisdom – to which I am now party:) Thanks for your wonderful teaching!
Glad to help!
Yes, I am a native English speaker who teaches English, and the mass nouns used countably are difficult to explain. For example: (1) I need LESS than 100 dollars per month to survive. (2) I accomplished the task in LESS than five minutes. (3) Five mgs of the solution IS more than enough at this altitude, and LESS than I needed at sea level. Phil, I truly enjoy your letters and tips. Tks for your insight. I am already on your email list.
Hi Cristina, yes this can get into tricky areas depending on certain contexts – for (1) and (2) there’s a rather unspoken uncountable substance that the quantities refer to, because you’re really referring to how much [of something] you need, as an idea, instead of how many units of that idea are needed. I.e. “I need less [money] than 100 dollars” / “I accomplished the task in less [time] than five minutes”. For (3) that’s a bit simpler as we’re referring to “less solution”, but indeed that can get confused by the fact that we’ve also quantified it (where I suppose it’s worth pointing out that the five mgs is countable but the substance itself which it quantifies, solution, is not).