Fewer or Less - The Great Debate

Fewer Americans are exercising these days. Because of evaporation, there is less water in the pond. Since retirement, I’ve got fewer things to do during the day. Less podcasting, more rod casting. These are all wonderful examples of less and fewer being used in sentences. Seems simple, right? Not really. There are a lot of nuances that can complicate the usage of less and fewer, even for a native speaker. Fear not, with just a quick read of this blog, you too can distinguish the usage of less and fewer!

It all boils down to plural vs. singular, plus, what can and cannot be counted. The countable and the uncountable. Also what is plural and non-plural. Less means not as much, fewer means not as many. You can count the amount of cups in your cabinet, TVs in your home, or the cars in your driveway. These would simply be labeled with fewer. There are fewer cups in my cabinet because I broke some recently. There are fewers TVs in my home because I sold most of them. There are fewer cars in my driveway right now because everybody went to work. Now for the uncountable or singular (non-plural), money is a good example, I have less money after spending it all on vacation. I have less water in my cup. There is less heat in the basement.

For the word less, you will use it whenever you are referring to a singular noun or something that is unable to be counted. The example of money was used earlier. You cannot make the word money plural, moneys, is not an actual word. So you have to say, “I have less money” not, “I have fewer moneys.” However, you can easily substitute most words to fix this if the word less is not what you want to use. For example, rather than money you could say, “I have fewer dollars in my wallet.” It is plural, on the contrary, you cannot say, “I have less dollar in my wallet.” 

For the word fewer, it is used when there is a plural noun present or something is countable. An example: pens. It is countable, you can count how many pens you have and it is plural. If you had 5 pens and you lost one, you would now have fewer pens than you did before. Some people may try to say, “you would now have less pens than you did before.” That is incorrect, you have fewer, the pens are both plural and countable. On the contrary, you would also not use fewer if the word pens was made singular rather than plural.

Although it is marketable, a common and incorrect usage of fewer and less is the “10 items or less” signs in a grocery store check-out aisle. Items are plural and can be counted. 10 items or fewer is the correct usage, despite what you see in a grocery store. It is somewhat common for people to use the word less rather than fewer on plural nouns, but you should use fewer when you can. 

To sum up, the difference between less and fewer is that less means not as much and fewer means not as many. The word less is used for singular nouns and the uncountable. The word fewer is used for plural nouns and the countable. It gets fairly easy once you get the hang of it, so maybe some practice with our online courses and teachers can get you there in no time!