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Improve Your Writing by Choosing the Correct Word
It’s the fewer versus less tussle all over again
Mama
Just killed a man
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger
Right Said Fred
Did that last line jar? Did it cause you to narrow your eyes, as it doesn’t belong there? As someone who was taught certain rigid rules of grammar as a child, I often come across similar intruders in these less formal times.
While listening to a discussion on the radio recently about Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the presenter stated that he, the presenter, probably has less followers on that platform than most people. I was aghast, nay, outraged.
The misused word assaulted my ears like a bum note in Moonlight Sonata; it was a nettle in a bed of daffodils, a stranger in a foreign land. It was all I could do to stop myself from writing a letter of complaint to the BBC.
Of course, I jest. I’m too long in the tooth to let such trivialities get me down, but I have to admit that on hearing the word less used when the correct choice would be fewer, it does jar on the ear. This is probably because I was shown the difference between the two words at a young age and, well, the child is father to the…
