Gregory's Server
 20 comments
Michael Porter
@mimsical The only place that kind of thing works is when thereโs a shortage of quinoa at the bulk food store and youโre permitted 500 g or less.
Sarah Doomsayer
@mimsical One of the first grammar rules I was taught by my mom. "If you can count them, use 'fewer'." "Them" at the time was cows in a field.
Todd Unctious
@mimsical I would always write fewer myself but I would also ask myself is language ruled by what it says in a grammar or by what people say in everyday speech or writing. And once upon a time language naturally changed and progressed with time and social influences, is that not allowed anymore? Is English fixed forever?
JdeBP
It is both, of course. Neither prescriptivism nor descriptivism are absolutely correct. From time immemorial we have had people inferring rules and teaching them to other people. That's a real part of language evolution. I'm not using that phrase lightly, too. We have known grammar books from the 2nd century BCE, and evidence of lost works on grammar from before then. 
Tom Walker
@mimsical "Fewer" is rapidly falling out of usage. In a generation or so it will sound archaic.
cybervegan
@mimsical I love how language evolves and in the end, this isn't even wrong. Specifically this issue is covered by a wikipedia page on "fewer versus less": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_versus_less
Oli
@cybervegan @mimsical I love how the first part of the wikipedia page you kindly linked is : "The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page...." I havent looked at the "talk page", i prefer imagining the fury
cybervegan
@OliverNoble @mimsical Yeah, I wasn't saying I thought it was entirely correct, but I do see these issues in many shades of grey (surprisingly as I'm Autistic). Different people have differing levels of ability to discern the difference, remember the rules, or even CARE about it. My opinion is, "If it gets the point across, it's valid." 
beforewisdom ๐
My step mother is a retired English teacher. Years ago I visited her and my father. We went out to eat. I absolutely loved it when she called manager over and began correcting the grammar on their menu.
๐ณ๏ธโ๐ Baehr๐
@mimsical@mastodon.social
One day at a discount store I saw a cart full of merchandise with a sign which said, "Everything in this cart is $1." I so wanted to push that cart to a clerk and hand over a dollar. |
@mimsical One of the more pointless and arbitrary "rules" inculcated by early modern prescriptivists