this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
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I have never come across a situation where the word "less" being used instead of "fewer" led to any kind of confusion. The "rule" is nonsense and doesn't add to the language.
I'm generally a fan of stricter guidelines to language to prevent it from losing meaning (e.g. if "literally" can mean "figuratively," we no longer have a word for what "literally" is supposed to mean). But rules for the sake of rules (e.g. don't end a sentence on a preposition) that don't add anything to the language is ridiculous. The point of language is to convey information. If the rules do more to get in the way of that communication than help it (like "it's actually fewer, not less" in the middle of a discussion), then those rules are bad and should be ignored.
Next you're going to tell me you don't care about affect/effect, and the dreaded alot.
I don't have alot of issues with either, they don't effect me either way (though affect and effect are two different words with distinct meaning, but I don't think having them as distinct words is necessary. Plenty of words have noun and verb variations). The "effect as a verb" should really go away, though. It only breeds confusion.