Quantity

Question

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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nahid78 · Answer

"Less" should be used for non countable noun. Items are countable, so "fewer" would be appropriate. Dollars countable, so fewer.

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Kinshook · Answer

"Less" is used for non-countable nouns and "fewer" is used for countable nouns.

EducationAisle · Answer

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.

Quantity

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