'Less' vs 'Fewer'

 

English is a marvelous language.  It's said to be a bear to learn for E2L students because it has so many little quirks, but those quirks also make it deliciously precise.  It's that built-in precision that — in most cases — allows a native speaker of English to understand a foreigner even when they make the sort of mistake that non-native speakers might make.

For native speakers, there's no excuse for not exercising the precision our native tongue grants us.

Lately, I've been noticing — especially in TV advertising — instances where 'less' and 'fewer' are being misused.  The classic example is seen at the supermarket check-out line: "10 items or less", which is wrongwrongwrongwrongwrong.

The easy-to-remember rule-of-thumb is that 'fewer' is always associated with a plural object: (e.g.) fewer dollars, fewer children; 'less' is always associated with a singular object: (e.g.) less wealth.  Alternatively, you can say that 'fewer' is digital (or discrete) and 'less' is analog (or continuous); if you can have 2 or 3 but not 2.5, 'fewer'.  Fewer dollars means less wealth; 10 items or fewer; less waiting time means fewer minutes spent on 'hold'.  Easy-peasy.