Grammar Greater vs. More

What are the rules/concepts behind both sentences?

For numbers alone, always use greater than or less than.
For the second sentence, it uses more than because the number is following by a noun.

does it matter whether the noun is countable?

I am also confused with them.

Please somebody clarify.

Use fewer or “er” forms when referring to countable nouns.

Greater/lesser/fewer

Wouldn't it be less for uncountable and fewer for countable?

For instance:
This queue is for custumers with fewer than 10 items.
"Please, put in my tea less sugar than you did in hers."

Her post was a bit vague and confusing for me.
This queue is for customers with fewer than 10 items.

Greater vs More:
Use "Greater" STRICTLY when dealing with numbers only (e.g. greater than 100)

Use "More" when dealing with group/subsets or making a comparison

Fewer vs Less:

Use "Fewer" with countable nouns

Use "less" with non-countable nouns

Generally "-er" is followed by "than" while making comparison..


Greater/lesser/fewer - all are comparitives and are used to make comparisons between two objects

To compare more than 2 objects use superlatives..

Countable / Non-Countable
Many / Much
More (Number of Objects or When making comparisons) / Greater (used strictly with Numbers e.g. greater than one hundered)
Fewer (fewer than 100 students in the class) / Less (Less than 100 dollars)
Number, Majority, Minority, Plurality / Amount, Quantity

I agree to this explaination.

Why not fewer than 100 dollars if fewer than 100 students is correct??????

that is just the way it is. "less" is one of those sexy words that applies to several instances.

less than one hundred dollars.

Why is fewer than 100 fish acceptable but not greater than 100 fish?

It is what GMAT English says and I prefer to hard-code their preference in mind.

Use greater only while dealing with numbers or in other words when dealing with amount, quantity..

Use fewer with any coutables e.g. while dealing with Number of people or to make comparison betw 2 countable quantities

The gyrfalcon, an Arctic bird of prey, has survived a close brush with extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than when the use of DDT was sharply restricted in the early 1970's.

A) extinction; its numbers are now five times greater than

B) extinction; its numbers are now five times more than

C) extinction; their numbers are now fivefold what they were

D) extinction; now with fivefold the numbers they had

E) extinction; now with numbers five times greater than

because... that is the way it is.

It has been a while since anyone has contributed to this thread, but after some searching, I found that the use of more has no bearing on whether it is countable or not.

e.g.
There are more apples than oranges
There is more water than juice


Greater seems to refer to being "Larger in size or importance or degree."
Hence, we can say the following:

The number of apples is greater than the number of oranges
The amount of water is greater than the amount of juice
The clarity of water is greater than that of juice
The fraction of the population who smoke is greater than those who do not [smoke]

In these examples, less could could be substituted as an adverb not as an adjective, which I think is what is creating the confusion.

Comments?

thanks for tip but to be more clear...actual rules

The K800 lays down the law on the topic - it clearly states:

Use ‘greater than’ when describing numbers ALONE. Use ‘more than’ when describing number of objects or when making comparisons.

E.g. ‘Greater than one hundred’ OR ‘more than one dozen fishes’ OR ‘I love you more than I love anything else’