For Halloween, you will get more than you bargained for; oh yes, you will leave this blog with a new understanding of how to correctly determine when to use “less” versus “fewer.”
Because I cannot be anything but transparent with you, I must admit that I needed this particular lesson just as much as some of you. And since I read multiple online sources for clarification, I have included links within the text so you can click through and read more.
Also? Plagiarism is illegal.
Grammar Girl offers this basic rule (with a few exceptions): “…you use less with mass nouns and fewer with count nouns.”
If you are not familiar with mass and count nouns, don’t worry I wasn’t either. For the most part, mass nouns refer to things that are not countable and count nouns refers to things that are countable.
Get it?
Got it?
Good.
Many parents are less concerned about cavities on Halloween.
Here, “less” is an appropriate choice. I’m pretty certain this is a no-brainer for many. The word “fewer” doesn’t seem to apply to this sentence whatsoever.
But what if I changed the sentence?
What if I wrote “Less parents concern themselves about cavities on Halloween.”
Is it right then?
No.
Instead, it should read, “Fewer parents concern themselves about cavities on Halloween.”
Why?
Because according to Writer’s Digest, “‘Fewer’ emphasizes number and modifies plural nouns, as in a smaller number of persons or individual items. ‘Less’ focuses on matters of degree, bulk or quantity. It often modifies collective nouns, mass nouns or nouns denoting an abstract whole.”
There were fewer masks to choose from this year in the costume shop.
Are the masks countable?
Yes.
“Fewer” modifies a plural noun and emphasizes the number of masks in the costume shop.
When it comes to Halloween, less makeup is not “more.”
Not only is this a play on the phrase, “less is more”, but there is nothing countable. The amount of makeup worn on Halloween versus other days of the year is a matter of degree.
Fewer horror movies released at the box office this Halloween.
One can count the number of horror movies and “fewer” modifies the plural noun.
Pugs enjoy dressing up less than us.
You simply can’t put a number on this poor pugs’ distaste for dressing up, now can you?
In my reading I was surprised to see supermarkets coming under fire for their (supposedly) grammatically incorrect signage which reads, “5 items or less.” I’ve seen it, have you?
The OxfordWords blog quotes from Fowler’s Modern English Usage when addressing the hypercorrection that grammarists apply to supermarket checkout signs.
“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).”
I don’t know why this brought me a measure of comfort. If even the professionals knock heads over what is right and wrong then maybe it isn’t such a big deal after all?
Now go!
Enjoy your Halloween.
And remember, the fewer Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups you eat, the more that are left for me!
Next up? “Bring” versus “Take.” Apparently that one gets under a lot of y’all’s skin!
Heather Sanders is a leading homeschooling journalist who inspires homeschooling families to live, love and learn. Married to Jeff, Heather lives in the East Texas Piney Woods where she currently home schools two of her three kids.