SMART TALK

by Dr. Saber S. Poder




ONE LESS: Around here, people often say this, as in "one less thing to do," or "That's one less person at the table." This from people who claim English as their first language. They mock the poor English of immigrants when they can't speak it well themselves.

"Less" describes amount, as in "It needs less sugar," or "I have less energy than I had yesterday." We measure the amounts of sugar and energy; we don't count them.

"Fewer" describes number, as in "one thing fewer to do," or "That's one person fewer at the table." We count things and people to arrive at numbers.

So we'd say that with fewer cars on the road and better bus and train service, we'd use less fuel. That is, we'd say that if we wanted to make that point clearly.