'Less' and 'Fewer'

A lot of people think that, in formal English, "less" is for mass nouns, like "music," and "fewer" is for count nouns, like songs. But it's more accurate to say "less" is for singular nouns and "fewer" for plural. So, when you want to be proper, you say the express lane is for 10 items or fewer because "items" is plural, but if you take one item out of your cart you have one less item, not one fewer item.

Tags: COPY EDITING, GRAMMAR, less vs fewer

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