If you can tell what's wrong with the title, this post isn't for you. Not that it's really for anyone. I'm just ranting about one of the most serious problems afflicting our nation.
Okay, so that's a bit of an over-statement. In a normal year, though, if the government wasn't shifting rapidly into a big-brother style communist dictatorship, it would definitely be one of the top problems we'd be dealing with.
The problem I'm talking about is people using the word "less" when they really mean to use "fewer". From the Grammar Girl website, "The basic rule is that you use less with mass nouns and fewer with count nouns."
What that means, in a nutshell, is that when you're talking about anything you can count (e.g. pens, pencils, dollar bills, calories, CARBS) you use fewer. When you're talking about anything you can't count (e.g. sugar, air, love) you use less. Pretty simple, right?
So, if it's so simple, why can't any advertisers get it right? Why are my ears assaulted every day with company after company advertising that their product contains "less carbs" or "less calories"?
I don't know. Maybe they have fewer intelligence than they used to.
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If you think a weakness can be turned into a strength, I hate to tell you this, but that's another weakness.
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7 comments:
serioulsy, i never knew this affected you so much. i'm sorry. i'll try to speak fewer bad sentences. did i get it right?
Actually, living in Tooele I've had to turn off my grammar-perceptors. I'd be like that little robot in the Simpson's episode that exploded when italian mafiosi started talking near it.
But it just seems to me that professional marketing companies could make an effort to get their grammar right.
I never knew the rule, but I'm sure glad you told me. I bet getting through this world is hard for you and Misty. The world is swimming in errors and you and Misty are the only ones who notice them.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will make fewer mistakes in the future because of it.
If only we could take this super pwer you have and turn it in to something profitable....
amen kristin!
Ask Elisha, it bothers the crap out of me too. It bothers Robert even more than myself. Something must be done, it has to be stopped. This is something up with which I will not put.
broccab
I think my last comment was actually made by my wife... either that or I'm really cracking up.
I don't know, Dan. But I think for some people, they can talk about having fewer intelligence. Or in other cases, the concept of fewer intelligence is absurd. I mean, how can you have fewer of nothing?
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