Some writers mistakenly swap words that serve similar functions. One example of this phenomenon involves the word pairing “less” and “fewer” (or “less than” and “fewer than,” depending on usage). You should use “less” when describing a mass that has no discrete elements (like oil or milk), but use “fewer” when describing something made up of quantifiable units (like eggs or chairs). For example, never write “I saw less than 100 people at the concert” because theoretically you are able to count the number of concert-goers in attendance. In this case, use “fewer than 100 people” instead. By the same token, you would never write “I have fewer milk now than I used to.” That just sounds wrong, right? Instead (of course) you would write “I have less milk now than I used to.”
A related example involves the word pairing “amount” and “number.” Again, you would never write “a large amount of people attended the concert.” These music lovers can be counted, so write “a large number of people attended the concert.” Likewise, you would never write “I have a greater number of milk now,” but would of course write “I have a greater amount of milk now.” Use “number” when the items are quantifiable and reserve “amount” for materials not divisible into discrete items.
Now I don't know whether to solve a math problem, listen to a song, or read a book!
© 2014 Bob Dial. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment