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Dear Teacher Zone Team,
When I was studying English I learnt that when you are talking of things being in smaller quantities, you used the word ‘less’ for non-count nouns and ‘fewer’ for count nouns. I was recently challenged on this by a student whose mother is an English native speaker. He said that his mother told him it was OK to say ‘less’ for all nouns and that was what most native speakers used. I looked this up in a grammar book and that agrees with me, although I have heard some native speakers using the other form on the television recently.
Please can you help!
Liisa,
Helsinki, Finland
11 2122 9000 / 0800 7038833
