🔑 Key Difference

• “Fewer” is used with countable nouns (things you can count).
• “Less” is used with uncountable nouns (things you cannot count individually).

1. When to Use “Fewer”

You use “fewer” when talking about things that can be counted one by one. These are usually plural nouns like people, cars, apples, etc.

• Examples:
  • There are fewer people at the concert this year. (You can count the people individually.)
  • We need fewer apples for this recipe. (Apples can be counted one by one.)
  • I have fewer books than you. (Books are countable.)

Think of “fewer” as the right word to use when you could physically count each item on your fingers.

1. When to Use “Less”

“Less” is used with uncountable nouns—things that can’t be easily counted individually, like liquids, emotions, or abstract ideas.

• Examples:
  • I drank less water today. (Water is uncountable; you measure it in liters or glasses, not individual units.)
  • She has less patience with slow drivers. (Patience is an abstract quality and cannot be counted.)
  • There’s less traffic on Sundays. (Traffic is a general, uncountable concept.)

Use “less” when you are talking about a mass noun or something that is seen as a whole or a collection, not individual items.

🎭 Analogy

Think of it this way: If you can count it, use “fewer.” If you measure it or think of it as a whole, use “less.”

• Imagine you have a jar of jellybeans. If you take out a few beans, you’d say “fewer jellybeans” (since you can count them). If the jar had less jelly (the spread), you’d say “less jelly” (because you don’t count jelly, you measure it).

🔄 Common Mistakes

• ❌ Incorrect: “There are less people in the room.”
  • ✅ Correct: “There are fewer people in the room.”
  • Why? Because “people” can be counted.
• ❌ Incorrect: “I have fewer money in my wallet.”
  • ✅ Correct: “I have less money in my wallet.”
  • Why? “Money” is an uncountable noun (you can count dollars or coins, but “money” itself is a mass noun).

📝 Practice Time!

Fill in the blanks with “fewer” or “less”:

1. I have ______ friends in this city than in my hometown.
2. You should eat ______ sugar if you want to be healthy.
3. There are ______ chairs in the room than we expected.
4. She spends ______ time on social media these days.

✅ Answers:

1. I have fewer friends in this city than in my hometown.
2. You should eat less sugar if you want to be healthy.
3. There are fewer chairs in the room than we expected.
4. She spends less time on social media these days.

🌟 Learning Tip

Here’s a quick tip to remember the difference:

• Fewer = Fingers (things you can count on your fingers).
• Less = Liquid (think of something like water or milk, which you measure rather than count).