Fewer

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Table of contents

1 English 1.1 Adjective 1.1.1 Usage notes 1.1.2 Translations 1.2 See also

English

Adjective

fewer

1. The comparative of few; a smaller number.

   Fewer women wear hats these days.

   There are fewer tigers than there were a hundred years ago.

Usage notes

• Less is correctly used with:

  Uncountable nouns, such as water, time or patience, as in She has less patience than he does.

  Plural nouns that measure distance, time or amount, as in He had to wait less than ten minutes. and This coat cost less than ten dollars.

• With plural nouns, the correct word is fewer. Many speakers and writers use less with plural nouns too, but this is considered to be incorrect.
• The important difference between less and fewer is that less refers to an amount (an uncountable substance, or something that need not be counted in integers like 1, 2, 3, etc.) and fewer refers to a number or quantity (something that can only be counted as an integer). Example: "10 or fewer items" (this refers to a number of items), and "My sister weighs 10 less pounds than I do" (weight is an amount, not a number; you can have non-integer amounts of weight, like 1/2 pound or 3/4 pounds, etc.)

Translations

• Danish: færre
• French: moins de
• Italian: meno
• Swedish: färre

See also

• less