Less talk, fewer words

Add comment November 12th, 2008

Bugs has five quarters. Daffy has nine dimes. Bugs has fewer coins, but Daffy has less money.

Bugs also has two $10 bills. Daffy has three $5 bills. Bugs has fewer bills — in fact, he has one less bill — but Daffy has less dollars (in the sense of total wealth).

So am I just being Looney? No, there’s a point here. In the world of comparative language, “more” always works, but items considered as individual things require “fewer” and things considered collectively take “less.”

Here’s a helpful passage from “Words on Words” by John B. Bremner:

“The sense of collective quantity prevails in sums of money, periods of time, measures of distance and weight: less than $200 a week, less than six months, less than three miles, less than 200 pounds.”

One exception, an example of which I inserted between dashes above: When the difference in amounts is down to one, “fewer” doesn’t work at all. It should be “one less.” Now I have one less thing to write about.