Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

jayles

Member Since

August 12, 2010

Total number of comments

748

Total number of votes received

228

Bio

Latest Comments

fewer / less

  • May 9, 2014, 4:51am

@HS "She had less family responsibilities" : one might (with a stretch) construe this as meaning the responsibilities were similar in number but less onerous; it is perhaps just a bit vaguer than "fewer responsibilities", although I wouldn't care to argue the toss.

"She had less responsibilities" does get several hits on google.

Whether one approves is one's own problem.

fewer / less

  • May 8, 2014, 11:37pm

My take on it is that "fewer" + uncountable noun is nonsensical, as "fewer" implies countable number.

Have diphthongs gone for good?

  • May 8, 2014, 8:53pm

BTW I suppose you guys realise you can upvote your own comments! ;=))

Have diphthongs gone for good?

  • May 8, 2014, 8:52pm

I would suggest that proficient English readers do not read by sounding out each syllable to understand the word; each word becomes a sort of symbol pretty much like Chinese, so whether it is orthographic or not becomes irrelevant to the reading process; it just needs to be consistent and familiar.
Spelling is an issue when we're learning to read and write and in an ESOL context; for most of us we are past it (or very much past it).

fewer / less

  • May 5, 2014, 6:18pm

less means smaller (in size or number); fewer = smaller in number.
a) Her troubles were fewer than her husband's.
b) Her troubles were less than her husband's.
Doesn't really come up much though.

fewer / less

  • May 5, 2014, 6:52am

If "fewer is more" means something other than "less is more", then we have a semantic distinction, but it's very small.

Is "few" is the result of Viking "package tours" ?

fewer / less

  • May 5, 2014, 12:33am

Few is more

fewer / less

  • May 5, 2014, 12:32am

Never in the history of humane endeavour have so many owed so much to so less.

There were, apparently, a less people there

I've seen it suggested that the past-simple

Murphy also notes the well-known Americanism: sentences like:
"Did you finish your homework yet?"
Is this too an example of something borrowed from some earlier form of English?