Less vs fewer

Question

I hear it all the time, from nearly every source--casual speakers to journalist, academics, etc. "Less" with countable nouns, esp. less people. I hear this from news commentators or hosts and their guests. I suppose if they were writing they might write fewer people, but invariably when speaking they seem to always say less people.

Why? Is it just a matter of course that less will be or already is acceptable before both count and non-count nouns? Or, is this just the case of a few countable nouns being used with the wrong determiner?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

It is just a matter of time until it becomes acceptable again.

Kooyeen · Answer

You can find several answers online, or here on this forum.

Merriam Webster:

The traditional view is that less applies to matters of degree, value, or amount and modifies collective nouns, mass nouns, or nouns denoting an abstract whole while fewer applies to matters of number and modifies plural nouns. Less has been used to modify plural nouns since the days of King Alfred and the usage, though roundly decried, appears to be increasing. Less is more likely than fewer to modify plural nouns when distances, sums of money, and a few fixed phrases are involved <less than 100 miles> <an investment of less than $2000> <in 25 words or less> and as likely as fewer to modify periods of time <in less (or fewer) than four hours>

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_vs._less

Less has always been used in English with counting nouns. Indeed, the application of the distinction between less and fewer as a rule is a recent phenomenon in linguistic terms. On this, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage notes [...]
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage notes that the "pressure to substitute fewer for less seems to have developed out of all proportion to the ambiguity it may provide in noun phrases like less promising results". It describes conformance with this pressure as a shibboleth and the choice "between the more formal fewer and the more spontaneous less" as a stylistic choice [...]

EnglishForward:

Anonymous · Answer

By the majority, it has always been acceptable, and for 1000 years.

Less vs fewer

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