This distinction was first tentatively suggested by the grammarian Robert Baker in 1770, and it was eventually presented as a rule by many grammarians since then. However, modern linguistics has shown that idiomatic past and current usage consists of the word less with both countable nouns and uncountable nouns so that the traditional rule for the use of the word fewer stands, but not the traditional rule for the use of the word less.
Maybe you should read the article, especially the section on historical usage. Saying ‘less’ was never wrong, there was just a bunch of fancy academics that came along once and said it’s wrong, while everyone else just carried on as usual.
Annoys me that “less” is always correct, which makes “fewer” completely redundant, and yet it’s a short word that could be valuable in conversation if opened up and reused for something everyday that has a long name.
“Before I leave the house, I always check that I’ve got my keys, phone, and fure in my pockets.”
Linguistics is cool AF! A lot of people think (I certainly used to) English is a romance language, sharing as much as it does from French. But it is Germanic!
While something like 90% of the dictionary owes itself to French in loan words, 95% of the most commonly used words, and the Grammer by which they’re used, belongs to the Germanic language family!
Fun linguistics fact for ya! Now you don’t have to play that game.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
Video game news oriented community. No NanoUFO is not a bot :)
Posts.
News oriented content (general reviews, previews or retrospectives allowed).
Broad discussion posts (preferably not only about a specific game).
No humor/memes etc…
No affiliate links
No advertising.
No clickbait, editorialized, sensational titles. State the game in question in the title. No all caps.
No self promotion.
No duplicate posts, newer post will be deleted unless there is more discussion in one of the posts.
No politics.
Comments.
No personal attacks.
Obey instance rules.
No low effort comments(one or two words, emoji etc…)
Please use spoiler tags for spoilers.
My goal is just to have a community where people can go and see what new game news is out for the day and comment on it.
I’m surprised they’re still doing multiple seasons.
I thought it’d pull a Concord by now.
At this point, I’m mostly just impressed it hasn’t been taken to a farm upstate to play with Concord and Babylon’s Fall
Fewer*
‘Under’ would have worked and been shorter.
or, take a different spin.
“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League season three debuts to over 200 Steam players!”
≤
I was just stirring the pot, and I love this response
Yeah but the summary could be lesser words.
Use “less” for countable nouns and “fewer” for uncountable nouns as a little language prank.
Ah yes, Carefewer Whisper is such a timeless love song!
*Timefewer :)
The implications are far worse than I imagined!
Eh. I could care fewer.
Couldn’t* care fewer. Get it right.
I couldn’t’ve’d cared fewer than I amming.
I love that there’s a wikipedia page on this.
I hate that doing the wrong thing consistently automatically makes it the right thing.
Maybe you should read the article, especially the section on historical usage. Saying ‘less’ was never wrong, there was just a bunch of fancy academics that came along once and said it’s wrong, while everyone else just carried on as usual.
Annoys me that “less” is always correct, which makes “fewer” completely redundant, and yet it’s a short word that could be valuable in conversation if opened up and reused for something everyday that has a long name.
“Before I leave the house, I always check that I’ve got my keys, phone, and fure in my pockets.”
Suicide Squad: Less interesting than discussing linguistics xD
Linguistics is cool AF! A lot of people think (I certainly used to) English is a romance language, sharing as much as it does from French. But it is Germanic!
While something like 90% of the dictionary owes itself to French in loan words, 95% of the most commonly used words, and the Grammer by which they’re used, belongs to the Germanic language family!
Fun linguistics fact for ya! Now you don’t have to play that game.
This has been a MintyFresh™️ linguistic fact
Appreciated Minty :)
The 24 hours peak players was just under 250. The headline using “300” is understating things.