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Message: [QUOTE="Sifaka, post: 5301414, member: 8516"] “[B][I]Fewer[/I] versus [I]less[/I][/B] is a debate in English grammar about the appropriate use of these two [URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_determiners']determiners[/URL]. Linguistic [URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription']prescriptivists[/URL] usually say that [I]fewer[/I] and not [I]less[/I] should be used with [URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_noun']countable nouns[/URL],[URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_versus_less#cite_note-2'][2][/URL] and that [I]less[/I] should be used only with [URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun']uncountable nouns[/URL]. This distinction was first tentatively suggested by the grammarian Robert Baker in 1770,[URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_versus_less#cite_note-mwdeu-less-fewer-3'][3][/URL][URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_versus_less#cite_note-Kiss_Pelletier_Husi%C4%87_2021_p._96-1'][1][/URL] and it was eventually presented as a rule by many grammarians since then.[URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_versus_less#cite_note-5'][a][/URL] However, modern linguistics has shown that idiomatic past and current usage consists of the word [I]less[/I] with both countable nouns and uncountable nouns so that the traditional rule for the use of the word [I]fewer[/I] stands, but not the traditional rule for the use of the word [I]less[/I].[URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_versus_less#cite_note-mwdeu-less-fewer-3'][3][/URL] As Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage explains, "[I]Less[/I] refers to quantity or amount among things that are measured and to number among things that are counted." [I][URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cambridge_Guide_to_English_Usage']The Cambridge Guide to English Usage[/URL][/I] notes that the "pressure to substitute [I]fewer[/I] for [I]less[/I] seems to have developed out of all proportion to the ambiguity it may provide in noun phrases like [I]less promising results[/I]".[B][SIZE=6] It describes conformance with this pressure as a [URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth']shibboleth[/URL] and the choice "between the more formal [I]fewer[/I] and the more spontaneous [I]less[/I]" as a [URL='https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_style']stylistic[/URL] choice.” “ source: [/SIZE][/B][SIZE=6][URL unfurl="true"]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_versus_less[/URL] As with many so-called [B][I]rules[/I], [/B]if enough self-styled experts proclaim loudly for a long while, and ignore the way native speakers actually use the language, we have these debates. [ATTACH type="full"]110266[/ATTACH][/SIZE] [/QUOTE]

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