‘Less’ or ‘fewer’?

People often don’t know when to use less  and when to use fewer in a sentence. Here’s how to get it right.

Use fewer if you’re referring  to people or things in the plural (e.g. houses, newspapers, dogs, students, children). For example:

People these days are buying fewer newspapers.

Fewer students are opting to study science-related subjects.

Fewer than thirty children each year develop the disease.

Use less when you’re referring to something that can’t be counted or doesn’t have a plural (e.g. money, air, time, music, rain). For example:

It’s a better job but they pay you less money.

People want to spend less time in traffic jams.

Ironically, when I’m on tour, I listen to less music.

Less is also used with numbers when they are on their own and with expressions of measurement  or time, e.g.:

His weight fell from 18 stone to less than 12.

Their marriage lasted less than two years.

Heath Square is less than four miles away from Dublin city centre.

You can read more about using less and fewer on the Oxford Dictionaries blog . Here you will find tips on how to use less and fewer correctly as well as exceptions to the general rules about their usage.

Less or fewer?

from English Grammar Today

We use the quantifiers less and fewer to talk about quantities, amounts and degree. Less and fewer are comparative words.

Less is the comparative form of little. Fewer is the comparative form of few.

We usually use less with uncountable nouns. We use fewer with plural nouns:

I do less work at weekends than I used to.

Better cycle routes would mean fewer cars and fewer accidents.

Warning:

You will often hear less used with plural countable nouns in informal spoken situations, but traditionally it is not considered to be correct:

We’ve got less pizzas than we need. There’s ten people and only eight pizzas. (traditionally correct usage: fewer pizzas)

When we use fewer or less before articles (a/an, the), demonstratives (this, that), possessives (my, your) or pronouns (him, them), we need to use of. We use less ofwith singular nouns and fewer of with plural nouns:

It was funny to begin with, but as time went on, it became less of a joke.

In ten years’ time, more and more people will be demanding information twenty-four hours a day, from all parts of the world. Fewer of them will be getting that information from newspapers which arrive hours after the news has occurred.

We can leave out the noun when it is obvious:

Every year in Britain about 5,000 people die on the roads. Fewer are killed at work. (fewer people)

See also:

• More
• Little , a little, few, a few
• Least , the least, at least