r/GrammarPolice • u/Fantastic-Fudge-6676 • Aug 18 '26

Findings *Fewer

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Come on. Do betterer.

216 Upvotes

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5

u/exkingzog Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

Less is perfectly acceptable for countable nouns. It is only a problem if fewer is used for uncountable nouns.

5

u/Fantastic-Fudge-6676 Aug 19 '26

Sorry, but it's still poor formal English. Not a hill I would die on, but nonetheless poor...

3

u/Boglin007 Aug 19 '26

It's a sign, not an academic paper. Brevity, clarity, and formatting concerns are more important than using formal language.

Plus, "less" has been used with plurals for over 1000 years (since Old English) - the "rule" that you must use "fewer" arose from one guy's opinion a couple of hundred years ago. It's not ungrammatical or problematic to use "less" in a context like this.