In this episode, Linda takes a look at the differences between “less" and “fewer”. Enjoy the episode!

Linda is a German/American ITTT alumna, teaching English in South Korea.

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Have you ever been to the supermarket and checked out at the “10 Items or Less” register? Probably but grammatically speaking the word less is used incorrectly here.

You see, less is used to refer to uncountable things, while fewer describes countable things.

Since you are buying several items, they are countable, so you should actually be standing in line at the “10 Items or Fewer” checkout aisle.

Other examples of the correct usage include:

I have fewer coins than you.

You have been to fewer countries than I have.

There’s less water in my cup.

I have less money in my wallet than he does.

Things that are uncountable include for example: music, art, love, happiness, advice, information, news
furniture, luggage, rice, sugar, butter, water, electricity, gas, power, money, currency and so on.

Now next time you are at the supermarket, tell the store manager to change his signs and see what he says.


That’s it for today! See you next time!