Comment on New Report Shows Working-Class Americans Live 7 Years Fewer Than Rich

herrvogel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• TheOakTree@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Isn’t fewer the better choice in formal English because years are a countable plural noun?

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  • herrvogel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s not. You can count years, but years are a unit of time and you can’t count time. Same thing with weight or distance or volume or a bunch of other things.

    It’s not a super strict rule anyway. Money is very much countable but it’s “less”.

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    • Objection@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      I have less money, because I have fewer dollars. I have less time to live than them, because I have fewer years left.

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      • herrvogel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        JFC this thread is bizarre. Just look this shit up, it’s not that hard. In fact here: duckduckgo.com/?q=less+vs+fewer&t=ffab&ia=web

        You will see that all of those results will agree that less is almost always correct when talking about time, despite the unit. And the very rare cases where fewer is correct do not cover OP’s title.

        You will also see that less is practically always correct for money. It is the single most notable exception to the countable vs uncountable rule that is mentioned very often.

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    • asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      it’s not

      it is

      years are a unit of time and you can’t count time

      wtf lmfao

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