Today it's a beautiful day in Paris but I'm sure you don't want to hear about
the weather because we've got a two-minute grammar for you yes that's
right when you take two minutes of your valuable time to learn some English
grammar and today we've got something that even native English speakers can't
agree on that's coming up but by the way today I'm at the rue des degrés which is
the shortest Street in Paris have a look
I'm going in now see you in a moment.
have a look at this sentence and tell me
if it's correct or incorrect
"less people came to see the performance than expected"
and the answer is well it's a controversial one
some people will say yes it's correct and other people would say no it's not
really correct you should say "FEWER people came to see the performance fewer
people came to see the performance than expected" so the rule in standard English
is that we use FEWER as a comparative for countable nouns so FEWER people you
can count people 1 2 3 people, fewer rabbits fewer bottles, fewer books fewer
kittens in a sentence "fewer people wear hats these days than they
did in the past" so FEW means not many FEWER means a
smaller number and THE FEWEST means the smallest number for example "in 2017
there were the fewest number of deaths in airplane crashes in the history of
aviation" now let's have a look at LESS so LESS is used as a comparative for
uncountable nouns and things that don't have a plural okay so you say less time
I have less time less freedom less work less money so for example "since they
introduced the new software I have less work to do" we also use LESS for
measurements or time so let's have a look at
an example for that "I've been living here for less than a year" so LITTLE means A SMALL
AMOUNT, LESS means A SMALLER AMOUNT and THE LEAST means THE SMALLEST AMOUNT
"I read all the books on this list and this book was the least interesting"
now that's standard English however many English speakers use LESS instead of
viewer and that's perfectly okay so if you want to say LESS instead of FEWER
less people instead of FEWER people well that's fine you know they say before you
can break a rule you have to know it first
but anyway do learn the word FEWER it's a beautiful word and some people
would say that it is more elegant okay and I would still encourage you to use
FEWER with countable nouns when you're speaking very formally and in formal
written English and because it sounds nice but in informal English do as
you wish as I said native English speakers will
often use LESS instead of FEWER
that's it I hope you learned something and if you have an opinion on this
do you use FEWER LESS use LESS all the time are you going to start using FEWER?
let us know in the comments thank you for watching stay mellow and I'll see
you next time