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dhirajsingh23
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Quantity [#permalink] Quantity   20 Apr 2022, 12:35
Why "less than 10 items or less" is wrong according to Manhattan sentence correction book and "We have less than 20 dollars" right ?

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Re: Quantity [#permalink] Quantity   20 Apr 2022, 13:45
"Less" should be used for non countable noun. Items are countable, so "fewer" would be appropriate. Dollars countable, so fewer.

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Re: Quantity [#permalink] Quantity   20 Apr 2022, 18:12
"Less" is used for non-countable nouns and "fewer" is used for countable nouns.


dhirajsingh23 wrote:
Why "less than 10 items or less" is wrong according to Manhattan sentence correction book and "We have less than 20 dollars" right ?

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Re: Quantity [#permalink] Quantity   20 Apr 2022, 21:02
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dhirajsingh23 wrote:
Why "less than 10 items or less" is wrong according to Manhattan sentence correction book and "We have less than 20 dollars" right ?

Hi Dhiraj, it is noteworthy that while more can be used for both "countable" (chairs, cycles etc.) and "uncountable" (energy, pollution etc.) nouns, this is not the case with less and fewer.

Generally speaking, the following will help you decide between less and fewer:

Use "less" for "singular" nouns and "fewer" for plural nouns.

Coming to your example, notice we would say:

Dhiraj believes that 20 dollars is a lot of money.

Since we use singular verb is with the noun 20 dollars, we would use "less" with 20 dollars.

On the other hand, we use phrases such as "glasses of water are..." and "children are...", we would use "fewer" with these nouns.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses this topic of "less vs fewer" in detail. Have attached the corresponding section of the book, for your reference.
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Less Vs Fewer.pdf [458.99 KiB]
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Re: Quantity [#permalink]
20 Apr 2022, 21:02
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