A Word, Please: When it comes to ‘fewer,’ sometimes grammar sticklers know less than they think

People who are careful about their grammar take extra care with “less” and “fewer.” Most of the time, the results are good. “Ben has fewer worries this year” sounds better than “Ben has less worries this year.”

But even though they make good choices most of the time, sticklers on the less-and-fewer issue usually don’t understand the grammar as well as they think they do. So when they take a hard line approach, they set themselves up for a fall.

Ask anyone who’s careful with “less” and “fewer” to explain the difference, and they’ll tell you this: “Less” is for mass nouns and “fewer” is for count nouns.

Mass nouns are things that aren’t counted, like “music,” “air” and “energy.” Count nouns, as the name suggests, can be counted: “song,” “molecule,” “volt.”

Mass nouns have no plural form. You say, “I love music,” not “musics.” You say, “I breathe air,” not “airs.” And you say, “He has so much energy,” not “so many energies.”

Count nouns have a plural form and a singular form. So you can say, “I like that song” or “I like those songs.” You can say, “one molecule” or “two molecules.” You can say “one volt” or “100 volts.”

So if it’s true you must use “fewer” for count nouns, then those grocery store express lane signs that say “10 items or less” are grammatically incorrect. After all, as any stickler will tell you, “item” is a count noun. And if count nouns require “fewer,” then those checkout lanes are wrong to use “less.”

But there are a few problems with this reasoning.

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First, people often want words to have one exclusive meaning. If “to rob” involves a direct confrontation, then “to burglarize” must mean the stealthy kind of theft. If “eager” is the happy, excited kind of anticipation, then “anxious” must mean the kind filled with dread. If “farther” refers to physical distance, than “further” must mean something other than physical distance. In fact, none of these rules are absolutes, and dictionary definitions allow overlap for these word pairs.

The same is true for “less” and “fewer.” Dictionaries allow “less” to mean “fewer” in any context where it sounds natural and makes sense. So it’s not wrong to say “10 items or less,” it’s simply not as proper as “10 items or fewer.”

Also, a better guide for when to choose “less” or “fewer” isn’t about mass nouns and count nouns. It’s about singulars and plurals. Consider this scenario: You’re in the express lane, which is for 10 items or fewer, and you realize you have 11 items, so you take one out of your cart. You now have one less item, not one fewer item, since “item” is singular here.

Lastly, people focused on “rules” can sometimes make poor choices. If you’re trying to be proper and you say your destination is “fewer than 10 miles away” or that you have “fewer than 50 dollars in your wallet,” you’re making a bad call. Why? Because “fewer” emphasizes individual units. And while, yes, dollars and miles are individual things, you probably were not talking about them that way. That is, 10 miles isn’t really 10 things so much as it’s a singular physical distance. So “fewer than 10 miles” implies it’s exactly 9 miles or 8 miles or 3 miles, eliminating the possibility it’s 9½ miles or 8.8 miles or any other distance that isn’t hyper-focused on counting precise 1-mile units.

Similarly, “fewer than 50 dollars” leaves no room for cents. You’re counting whole dollars only — or so the verbiage implies. “Less than 50 dollars” better captures your meaning of a singular sum of money.

To pick between “less” and “fewer,” the rule about mass nouns and count nouns will serve you well in most situations. But if the results sound awkward, like “one fewer item,” forget the rule and go with your ear: “one less item.”

June Casagrande is the author of “The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.” She can be reached at [email protected].