To keep you on your toes about using the language properly, here’s a little quiz I think you’ll enjoy. I’m going to ask you three questions, and in each one I will make the same error of diction— my choice of words. See if you can tell which word I’m misusing.
Here we go:
- Would you say there are more cars on the road now than there were five years ago, or are there less?
- Do you think a stronger economy will cause less U.S. companies to manufacture their products in foreign countries? (I don’t care whether you answer yes or no. Just try to tell which word I’m misusing.)
- The last time you bought groceries, did you buy less than you did the time before, or more?
Okay, did you catch which word I abused? If you guessed less, you’re right. In each question I failed to make the proper distinction between less and fewer, a distinction that unfortunately is observed less and less these days by fewer and fewer people.
Many people incorrectly use less when fewer is required. Here’s the difference.
Less modifies quantities, abstractions, things that are considered single or whole—less food, less time, less money. Fewer modifies things that can be itemized, enumerated, broken down into separate elements or parts—fewer thoughts, fewer words, fewer mistakes. In the questions I posed a moment ago, instead of saying less I should have said fewer cars, fewer companies, and fewer groceries, because cars, companies, and groceries all can be considered individually.
The use of less in place of fewer is so common nowadays that to many speakers fewer has come to sound stilted, even if they know it’s correct. I once edited a business manual that contained the following sentence: “As prices increase, producers will offer more products for sale; as prices decrease, producers will offer less (or fewer) products.” The author couldn’t decide whether to use less or fewer, and so used both in a desperate attempt to satisfy all parties—those who erroneously offer less products, and those who properly offer fewer of them.
If you think I’m just nitpicking or caviling about this fewer/less distinction, let me assure you that the error has a far-reaching effect on our daily lives. William Safire, who for years has been writing about language for The New York Times Magazine, has said that “the most power-intensive moment” in the history of his column “came when Safeway Stores was criticized for ‘Express Lane—Ten Items or Less’ and promptly rectified the mistake.” Safire boasted that “millions of mothers take their tots through the checkout counters at that fine company under signs that now read ‘Ten Items or Fewer.’”
I never saw that correction in the Safeway stores where I live. However, they did make one small change in the express-lane sign: It went from reading “ten items or less” to “nine items or less.” Perhaps out of guilt for compounding the error, a short while later Safeway sold out to the giant supermarket chain Vons.
All was not lost, however. After the Vons people finished relocating the butter and spaghetti, rearranging the meat, and decorating the store with double-coupon banners, they finally got around to the wording on the express-lane signs.
But instead of changing “nine items or less” to “nine items or fewer,” they simply ducked the diction issue altogether. The express-lane signs now read, “No more than nine items.”
I hope you will take this little lesson on less and fewer to heart. The ability to distinguish between these words is one sign of a careful writer and speaker. Using them properly won’t make you less attractive or cause you to have fewer friends. And remember, the people who have less trouble in life are the ones who make fewer mistakes. So take care to use less when you’re talking about quantities, abstractions, or things that are considered single or whole, and use fewer when you’re talking about things that can be itemized, considered individually, or broken down into elements or parts.
