10 Items Or Less

Or...is it "10 items or Fewer"?  I have actually seen it both ways in the same Target store recently...in adjacent lanes.  One is grammatically correct and the other is not!  And the one that is NOT, is the one that is found most frequently on these checkout lane signs!

The use of "less & fewer" "much & many" and "amount & number" are regularly confused and seem to be freely interchanged by the masses.  But they are not interchangeable and one simple rule nearly always applies to all of them. (I have to qualify "nearly always" because the only accurate ALWAYS is that there are ALWAYS exceptions!  Aaaannnd...I do have readers who find great delight in pointing out the exceptions to the rule!  You are now officially loosed from that compulsion!) 

Here's the rule: when referring to things that can be counted individually (i.e. can be made plural), the correct word choices are FEWER, MANY and NUMBER.  When referring to a thing that cannot be counted (i.e. a single mass/quantity), choose LESS, MUCH and AMOUNT.

Adults almost always instinctively make the right choice with much and many, but children often exchange the two.  Time and experience seem to naturally correct this one in most cases.  It comes to "sound" right or wrong.

However, the same amount of time and experience seems to have little effect on the other two.  

MANY / MUCH:

How much food did you eat? (can't count food or make it plural)

How many wings did you eat? (can count wings)

How much water did you drink? (can't count water or make it plural)

How many glasses of water did you drink? (can count glasses)

FEWER / LESS:

Did you buy 2 or fewer gallons of milk? (can count gallons)

Did you buy less milk than I did? (can't count milk or make it plural)

I saw fewer than 3 deer on my walk. (can count deer)

I saw less wildlife than I usally do on my walk. (can't count wildlife or make it plural)

NUMBER / AMOUNT:

She donated a greater number of hours to the cause than you did. (can count hours)

He donated a greater amount of time to the cause than I did. (can't count time or make it plural - at least not when referring to a block of space-time...you can when referring to a number of incidents, i.e. how many times...but those )

I can count on one hand the number of times he damaged property. (can count times as incidents)

I can't tell you the amount of damage he caused to the property.  (can't count damage)

You get the idea, right?  So, here's your test.  It's a rather simple test, really, so the prize is simple: a batch of homemade peppermint hot chocolate mix.  Sounds pretty good about now, doesn't it?

1.  I am having fewer/less problems with my English now than I was before I read this post.

2.  How many/much M&M's are left?

3.  The number/amount of mistakes you made on this test is unacceptable.

4.  Less/fewer people participated in this test than I had hoped.

5.  How many/much guests are you expecting?

6.  The sheer number/amount of snowflakes is mind-boggling.

7.  What number/amount of snow fell yesterday? :-)

8. We rode less/fewer miles than expected today because of the heat.

 

9.  The students brought in a greater number/amount of donations than the parents.

10. How many/much friends may I have over on Friday?

11.  Did you seriously think I would miss a greater number/amount of answers than you?

12.  This test has less/fewer questions than most.

See...told you it was super easy.  And really, the most common mistakes are made when we fail to make the simple distinction between rain and raindrops, people and persons, beer and glasses of beer.  (And quite honestly, educated adults usually only muck these up in relation to people and groups of persons.)  If you're one of the guilty ones, go ahead and reform yourself...it'll be one of the easiest changes you've ever made!