{{Short description|Grammatical usage debate}} {{DISPLAYTITLE:''Fewer'' versus ''less''}} {{Redirect|Fewer|the non-profit organization|Forum on Early Warning and Early Response}} thumb|The first known suggestion that ''fewer'' should be used in place of ''less'', in Robert Baker's 1770 ''Remarks on the English Language''<ref name="Kiss Pelletier Husić 2021 p. 96">{{cite book | last1=Kiss | first1=T. | last2=Pelletier | first2=F.J. | last3=Husić | first3=H. | title=Things and Stuff: The Semantics of the Count-Mass Distinction | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-108-83210-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r1ctEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 | access-date=2024-03-16 | page=96}}</ref>
'''''Fewer'' versus ''less''''' is a debate in English grammar about the appropriate use of these two determiners.
Linguistic prescriptivists usually say that ''fewer'' should only be used with countable nouns,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goldstein |first=Norm |title=Associated Press Stylebook |publisher=The Associated Press |date=2000 |isbn=0-917360-19-2 |pages=98}}</ref> and that ''less'' should be used only with uncountable nouns. This distinction was first tentatively suggested by the grammarian Robert Baker in 1770,<ref name="mwdeu-less-fewer" /><ref name="Kiss Pelletier Husić 2021 p. 96"/> and it was eventually presented as a rule by many grammarians since then.{{efn|See for example, ''The Complete Plain Words'' by Sir Ernest Gowers, revised by Sir Bruce Fraser and issued as a standard text by HMSO to British civil servants.<ref name="Gowers">Gowers (1973), p. 163.</ref>}} It can also be found in modern grammars such as Advanced Grammar in Use<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hewings |first=Martin |title=Advanced Grammar in Use Book with Answers and eBook and Online Test |edition=4th |publisher=Cambridge University Press & Assessment |page=104 |isbn=9781108920216}}</ref> as well as dictionaries such as Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English<ref>https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/less</ref> and Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.<ref>https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/less_1?q=less</ref> A similar proposed distinction exists for the words ''fewest'' and ''least''.
Linguistic descriptivists note 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'' is followed, the traditional rule for the use of the word ''less'' is not.<ref name="mwdeu-less-fewer" /> 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."
==Current usage== 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''.<ref>"Supermarket checkouts are correct when the signs they display read ''5 items or less'' (which refers to a total amount), and are misguidedly pedantic when they read ''5 items or fewer'' (which emphasizes individuality, surely not the intention)." ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120814160151/http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/08/less-or-fewer/ Oxford Dictionaries])</ref><ref name=king/> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2008 |title=When to use 'fewer' rather than 'less'? |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7591905.stm}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2008 |title=Tesco to ditch 'ten items or less' sign after good grammar campaign |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2659948/Tesco-to-ditch-ten-items-or-less-sign-after-good-grammar-campaign.html}}</ref>
A study of online usage seems to suggest that the distinction is not observed by the majority of people (despite copy editing).<ref name="king">{{Cite web |last=Liberman |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Liberman |date=2006 |title=If it was good enough for King Alfred the Great... |url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003775.html |publisher=Language Log}}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7590440.stm Tesco is to change the wording of signs on its fast-track checkouts to avoid any linguistic dispute], BBC, August 2008.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Cambridge Guide to English Usage |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto00pete_0/page/205 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto00pete_0/page/205 205] |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-62181-6 |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter=fewer or less}}</ref> 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''.
{| class="wikitable" |+ !aspect !original !comparative !superlative |- |[number] |few |'''''fewer''''' |''fewest'' |- |[amount, degree] |little |'''''less''''' |''least'' |}
===Exceptions=== 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").<ref>{{Cite web |title=''Fewer'' vs. ''Less'' – Grammar & Punctuation |url=http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/definitions/fewer-v-less/ |access-date=2016-01-27 |website=The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation (grammarbook.com)}}</ref>
Some argue that the rare and unidiomatic<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-01-10 |title=Throw Grammar from the Train: One fewer non-rule to follow |url=http://throwgrammarfromthetrain.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/one-fewer-non-rule-to-follow.html |access-date=2016-01-27 |website=Throwgrammarfromthetrain.blogspot.co.uk}}</ref> ''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''".<ref name="mwdeu-less-fewer" />
==Historical usage== ''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,<ref name="mwdeu-less-fewer">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersd00merr |title=Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage |publisher=Merriam-Webster |date=1995 |isbn=0-87779-132-5 |edition=2nd |page=[https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersd00merr/page/592 592] |chapter=less, fewer |url-access=registration}}</ref>
:As far as we have been able to discover, the received rule originated in 1770 as a comment on ''less'': "This Word is most commonly used in speaking of a Number; where I should think ''Fewer'' would do better. 'No Fewer than a Hundred' appears to me, not only more elegant than 'No less than a Hundred', but more strictly proper." (Robert Baker 1770).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/remarksonenglis00bakegoog |title=Reflections on the English Language: In the Nature of Vaugelas's Reflections on the French |publisher=J. Bell |date=1770 |page=55}} (The subtitle refers to the 17th-century French grammarian Vaugelas.)</ref> Baker's remarks about 'fewer' express clearly and modestly – 'I should think,' 'appears to me' – his own taste and preference....Notice how Baker's preference has been generalized and elevated to an absolute status and his notice of contrary usage has been omitted."
The oldest use that the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives for ''less'' with a countable noun is a quotation from 888 by Alfred the Great:
:''{{lang|ang|Swa mid {{strong|læs worda}} swa mid ma, swæðer we hit yereccan mayon.}}''
:("With {{strong|less words}} or with more, whether we may prove it.")
This is in fact an Old English partitive construction using the "quasi-substantive" adverb ''{{lang|ang|læs}}'' and the genitive ''{{lang|ang|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.<ref name="Fowlers 2015">{{Cite book |last=Fowler |first=H.W. |title=Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-966135-0 |editor-last=Butterfield |editor-first=Jeremy |page=472}}</ref>
==See also== * Grammatical number * {{section link|Mass noun|Words fewer and less}} * Count noun * Quantization (linguistics)
== Footnotes == {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv260.shtml Less/Fewer – Learning English – BBC World Service] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120107231238/http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/less-or-fewer Less/Fewer – Oxford Dictionaries] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071124090932/http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxlessvs.html History of the rule and exceptions] * [http://www.translationdirectory.com/article853.htm Translation Directory on the relevancy of the rule]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fewer Less}} Category:English grammar Category:English usage controversies