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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Grammar
A special, tricky case of Less / Fewer
0 I understand the basic difference between less and fewer: you use "less" for things that aren't counted (There is less water in the pool than yesterday; I feel less hungry now than before). You use "fewer" for things that are counted (There are fewer than eight cars in my garage; There are fewer jellybeans in that jar than you think). 02 br
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00 What if what you're describing IS countable but you don't mean a full unit less? For example.... if I said, "There are fewer than two gallons of water in that jug" this suggests that there are 0 or 1 gallons. But what if the amount is 1.9 gallons? There aren't really "fewer" than 2 gallons, since rounded off 1.9 is 2 anyway, but there Is "less" than 2 gallons in there... right? The same can go with something like time. People say "there is less than one minute left" even though minutes can be counted. So, should I say "There are less than two minutes left" if, say, 1 minute and 57 seconds is left? Or am I just crazy? 02 br
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00 Thanks for your help. 0-
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00 What if what you're describing IS countable but you don't mean a full unit less? For example.... if I said, "There are fewer than two gallons of water in that jug" this suggests that there are 0 or 1 gallons. But what if the amount is 1.9 gallons? There aren't really "fewer" than 2 gallons, since rounded off 1.9 is 2 anyway, but there Is "less" than 2 gallons in there... right? The same can go with something like time. People say "there is less than one minute left" even though minutes can be counted. So, should I say "There are less than two minutes left" if, say, 1 minute and 57 seconds is left? Or am I just crazy? 02 br
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00 Thanks for your help. 0-
Top answer
02 br 02 br 00 1. 02 br 02 br 00 2. 02 br 02 br 00 It seems to me that (generally speaking) #1 would be the default phrase: you would use it for any quantity under 2 pints.
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- 02 br 02 br 00 2.
- 02 br 02 br 00 It seems to me that (generally speaking) #1 would be the default phrase: you would use it for any quantity under 2 pints.
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- pints, in this context).
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2 Answers
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0 Hello Anon 02 br
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00 It's an interesting point. 02 br
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00 1. There's less than 2 pints of water in that jug. 02 br
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00 2. There are fewer than 2 pints of water in that jug. 02 br
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00 It seems to me that (generally speaking) #1 would be the default phrase: you would use it for any quantity under 2 pints. 02 br
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00 It's an interesting point. 02 br
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00 1. There's less than 2 pints of water in that jug. 02 br
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00 2. There are fewer than 2 pints of water in that jug. 02 br
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00 It seems to me that (generally speaking) #1 would be the default phrase: you would use it for any quantity under 2 pints. 02 br
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0 I think measurments trigger "less", because you're usually thinking of the scale and not of the countable units. 02 br
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00 For example, if you ask me: "How long did it take you to read that book?" I could answer: "Less than a week," or "Less than seven days," and I'd have given you the same information. In such a context, weeks and days are countable, but they're not count
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00 For example, if you ask me: "How long did it take you to read that book?" I could answer: "Less than a week," or "Less than seven days," and I'd have given you the same information. In such a context, weeks and days are countable, but they're not count
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