Have you ever gone to the supermarket and been lured into the express checkout aisle because you have Twelve Items or Less? Strictly speaking, it turns out that sign confuses less with fewer.
The words less and fewer both apply to quantities, but the word less typically refers to things that cannot be counted, such as emotions, abstract notions of time or unmeasured amounts of water. For example:
The drought means there is less water in the creek this year.
or
Frank had less anxiety about the exam after doing some extra studying.
The word fewer refers to quantities that can be counted. For example,
There were fewer people at the game last night than there were a week ago.
On Mondays, there are always fewer customers in the restaurant.
Following this rule and returning to the placard at the supermarket, it would therefore read, "Twelve items or fewer." The intended result of the express aisle is that you'll spend less time waiting.
It's a fine distinction, but when it comes to formal writing or speech, it's best to use fewer for things we can count, and less for things we can't.
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Sources: Oxford Dictionary of Current English and The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White.
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Comments: 7
And Thomas, I think you've got a strong case there for getting a couple items at the low, low price of 1 cent. If you do risk the embarrassment and give it a try, you'll have to write about your experiences here on Gather.
Thanks again, everyone!
From The Merriam Webster Dictionary of English Usage: "The OED shows that less has been used of countables since the time of King Alfred the Great..." and goes on to give many examples of this usage.