Less or fewer?

Less or fewer?

“Less” and “fewer” are used in different ways from each other but many people – especially native speakers of English – get them mixed up.

Both words are comparative adjectives and the opposite of “more”, but “less” means “not as much” and “fewer” means “not as many”.

In slightly more technical terms, we use “less” with uncountable nouns and “fewer” with countable nouns.

For example:

• There is less traffic at weekends.
• She prefers it when it is less noisy.
• It is better to use less sugar.
• I do less cycling than when I was younger.
• He is feeling a bit better now; he has less of a fever.

• There are fewer cars at weekends.
• Fewer people walk to work.
• I should drink fewer cups of coffee.
• Ties are not as popular as they used to be, that’s why there are fewer of them in the shops.
• The changing environment means that there are fewer birds.

The mistake that many people make is to use “less” when they should use “fewer”.

So, these sentences are, strictly speaking, grammatically wrong:

• There are less cars at weekends. X
• Less people walk to work. X
• I should drink less cups of coffee. X
• Ties are not as popular as they used to be, that’s why there are less of them in the shops. X
• The changing environment means that there are less birds. X

BUT, such expressions are quite common. Perhaps this is because people don’t know the usual rule of grammar. Or perhaps it’s because of the ever-increasing influence of American English, in which the rule seems to be not as strict. When you hear someone use “less” in the wrong place you might also hear a pedant shout “fewer!” as a correction.

^{A pedant is defined in the Cambridge English Dictionary as “a person who is too interested in formal rules and small details that are not important”.}

^{The Peasants’ Revolt was a major uprising that happened in England in 1381.}

In English there are always exceptions to any rule. In this case there are just four main exceptions, and they are all related. We often use “less” rather than “fewer” when we are talking about time, distance, weight or money.

Here are some examples:

• It took us less than four hours to get to Paris.
• The hotel is just three kilometres from the airport.
• She weighs less than 50 kilos.
• I bought it for less than 20 euros.

In these examples, hours, kilometres. Kilos and euros are all countable so you might expect to use “fewer” rather than “less”. However, we are not talking about four individual hours but about a single period of time lasting four hours. Similarly, we’re not talking about three individual kilometres but a single distance of three kilometres. And so on…

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One final point: we also use “less” with other adjectives.

For example:

• My meal was less expensive than yours.
• His latest book is less interesting than his previous one.
• This dress is less colourful than that one.

^.

^{Thanks to Chris for the t-shirt.}

^{Posted by Graham.}