I’ve been listening and I hear people using the word ‘less’ when the correct word would be ‘fewer’. As in ‘less people are saying fewer’.
Listen yourself, see if you hear it too.
LOOKING FOR LIFE BEYOND CABLE NEWS AND FINDING THAT RESISTANCE IS FUTILE
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
- Louis BrandeisTension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.
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I was corrected by a very snooty society woman when I was 19 who told me “smart men don’t marry women with poor grammar.” I thought, “what a snob” But I did stop saying “less” when I meant “fewer”! And my husband, who I met years later is VERY smart!
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Well there you go! The power of the few(er)!!
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Because he did the post, I know you know the difference, but for others who want to know more, here’s something from Chicago Manual of Style.
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/CMS_FAQ/LessorFewer/LessorFewer01.html
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Frank – I worked many years on newspapers – we used the NY Times manual. It was the bible for writers and proofreaders (anyone remember proofreaders? They were the ultimate grammar police). Wonder how many media types use it today.
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Style, as you and I know it, is slipping away.
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Yup. And we can no longer count on the ‘pros’ to hold it in place.
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Heard it last night from the local commentator on Ch. 7 who covers so. county and the hackles went up. Bust must ask, what exactly are hackles?
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Confirmation! From now on Ed, you’ll hear it all the time. 🙂
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I DO hear it all the time. It’s been around for years in “less fat, less calories”. Argh. It’s like those space takers “just” and “like”. And who STARTS a sentence with “I mean”? Talking heads are increasingly using “of course” and “by the way” (I’m talking to you Brian Williams and Bob Haragan). Those phrases make the story that follows sound like an after thought or insignificant. I swear people do not hear themselves.
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When the talking heads and newsreaders yak yak, they committ far worse sins. My new favorite for the ‘awful award’ is the CBS network news guy who starts stories iwth “we wondered about [whatever] and looked into it and thought you might be interested too”. What????? Infantile. Totally. It actually SAYS that the following story is an ‘afterthought’.
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Well I’m quite prone to flubs in my writing, but I try.
I’ll try to make less mistakes
Doh!! I mean fewer.
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There ya go! You’ve got a new name and gravatar here – intentional?
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At work we have limits on java applets that seem to bung up the way wordpress’ website works at times. This is Brucetheeconomist.
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I KNOW it’s you!
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Wouldn’t the use of the word ‘go’ instead of ‘say’ be at least as egregious???
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absolutely. But that’s more a matter of slang I think, which kind of has its own rules.
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