OT: word games, less and fewer (was Re: [OS X TeX] Re: find in texshop - wishlist)

[William F. Adams]

On May 16, 2005, at 8:15 AM, George Ghio wrote:

> Less
> adj: (comparative of `little' usually used with mass nouns) a 
> quantifier meaning not as great in amount or degree; "of less 
> importance"; "less time to spend with the family"; "a shower uses less 
> water"; "less than three years old"
>
> Fewer
> adj: (comparative of `few' used with count nouns) quantifier meaning a 
> smaller number of; "fewer birds came this year"; "the birds are fewer 
> this year"; "fewer trains were late"

There's a US Comic strip called _Jumpstart_ which includes a 
grandmother who is quite the stickler for proper English usage --- they 
did a cartoon on this which graphically demonstrated the difference 
between the two using incmoplete portions of people standing in the 
grocery line with ``less people''.

William

-- 
William Adams, publishing specialist
voice - 717-731-6707 | Fax - 717-731-6708
www.atlis.com

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