Fewer versus less is a debate in English grammar about the appropriate use of these two determiners. Linguistic prescriptivists usually say that fewer and not less should be used with countable nouns, [2] and that less should be used only with uncountable nouns. This distinction was first tentatively suggested by the grammarian Robert Baker in 1770, [3] [1] and it was eventually presented as a rule by many grammarians since then. [a] A similar proposed distinction exists for the words fewest and least. However, modern linguistics has shown that idiomatic past and current usage consists of the word less being used with both countable nouns and uncountable nouns. While the prescriptive rule for the use of the word fewer stands, the traditional rule for the use of the word less does not. [3] As Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage explains, "Less refers to quantity or amount among things that are measured and to number among things that are counted."
The comparative less is used with both countable and uncountable nouns in many discourse environments and dialects of English. In certain discourse environments, however, the use of fewer is preferred. For example, many supermarket checkout line signs read "10 items or less", while others read "10 items or fewer", reflecting the influence of prescriptive grammar on standard language practices. Descriptive grammarians consider this to be a case of hypercorrection as explained in Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage . [5] [6] In 2008, British supermarket chain Tesco replaced its "10 items or less" notices at checkouts with "up to 10 items" instead of "10 items or fewer" to avoid the controversy surrounding the proposed rule. [7] [8]
A study of online usage seems to suggest that the distinction is not observed by the majority of people (despite copy editing). [6] It has also been noted that certain prescribed constructions are even less likely to see use. For example, it is less common to prefer "At fewest ten items" over "At least ten items" – another potential inconsistency in the proposed rule. [9] Other unnatural examples include "Fewer than half of people", "He won by fewer than five votes", and "Fewer of them came than last time". Additionally, no other determiner besides few has a recognized comparative (-er) or superlative (-est) form, as those suffixes are normally only applied to adjectives, which in the past were not distinguished from determiners.
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage notes that the "pressure to substitute fewer for less seems to have developed out of all proportion to the ambiguity that can be found in certain noun phrases, such as less promising results." It describes conformance with this pressure as a shibboleth and the choice "between the more formal fewer and the more spontaneous less" as a stylistic choice. [10] According to the proposed rule, less would only be used to modify the degree of the adjective, while fewer would be used instead to modify the number of results, despite that no equivalent possible substitution exists for more. Alternative strategies exist to encode such a disambiguation if a speaker wishes, such as to use not as in place of less and not as many in place of fewer.
aspect | original | comparative | superlative |
---|---|---|---|
[number] | few | fewer | fewest |
[amount, degree] | little | less | least |
Some prescriptivists prescribe the rule addition that less should be used with units of measurement of time, money, weight, and distance (e.g. "less than 10 dollars" rather than "fewer than 10 dollars", and "less than 3 miles" rather than "fewer than 3 miles"). [11]
Some argue that the rare and unidiomatic [12] one fewer should be used instead of one less (both when used alone or together with a singular, discretely quantifiable noun as in "there is one fewer cup on this table"), but Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says that "of course [less] follows one". [3]
Less has historically been used in English with countable nouns, but a distinction between the use of fewer and less is first recorded in the 18th century. On this, Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage notes, [3]
The oldest use that the Oxford English Dictionary gives for less with a countable noun is a quotation from 888 by Alfred the Great:
This is in fact an Old English partitive construction using the "quasi-substantive" adverb læs and the genitive worda ("less of words") (cf. plenty of words and *plenty words). When the genitive plural ceased to exist, less of words became less words, and this construction has been used since then until the present. [14]