Children of a fewer god - my new rebellion

One of my nails on the blackboard things is when people use the word ‘less’ with countable nouns instead of ‘fewer’.

As in, “there’s less people...”. Since people around here think it’s also ok to say shit like, ‘on accident’, or ‘over top of’ I’ve decided that from now on I’m going to start using fewer for non countable nouns as a way of leveling the playing field.

As in, “that small glass holds fewer liquid than the big one”

Fuck em.

The purpose of language, written or spoken, is to make the recipient understand your message.
Pedantry is silly when you know exactly what they mean.
Much ado about nothing. :p:

Go with the flow and you'll have one thing fewer to worry about.

(oh noes, it's contagious)

footfootfoot;1017143 wrote:

One of my nails on the blackboard things is when people ...

Frustrating is when people ...

Irritating is when people ...

Disheartening is when people ...

Aggravating is when people ...

Prophetic is when people ...

Harrassing is when people ...

Onerous is when people ...

Unpleasant is when people ....

Disconcerting is when people ...

Painful is when people ....

Why blame the poor blackboard?

Shots fired!

I would argue it's not the blackboard, it's the nails.

...maybe if there were less of them.

(aha)

Frustrating, irritating, disheartening, aggravating, harassing, onerous, unpleasant, disconcerting, painful is when TW...

...is right and Gravdigr is wrong. Forgot about [post=1017108]Henry Ford (II)[/post] didn'tja?

FoMoCo would like to. :rolleyes:

Yeah I have a thesaurus but it’s terrible. Not only that it’s also terrible.

Thesaurus, isn't that the kind of Dinosaur Jesus rode?

footfootfoot;1017143 wrote:

One of my nails on the blackboard things is when people use the word ‘less’ with countable nouns instead of ‘fewer’.

As in, “there’s less people...”. Since people around here think it’s also ok to say shit like, ‘on accident’, or ‘over top of’ I’ve decided that from now on I’m going to start using fewer for non countable nouns as a way of leveling the playing field.

As in, “that small glass holds fewer liquid than the big one”

Fuck em.

I want to know if this is going to effect me in anyway? Especially as I don't know where my theosaurus is at, so I will have less words to impact you with.

footfootfoot;1017196 wrote:

Yeah I have a thesaurus but it’s terrible. Not only that it’s also terrible.

Damn thesaurus. It could not even come up with another word for 'terrible'.

Let's burn the books. Then only delightful will exist. Antonyms are more pleasant.

Save the world. We need more English Nazis.

monster;1017201 wrote:

I want to know if this is going to effect me in anyway? Especially as I don't know where my theosaurus is at, so I will have less words to impact you with.

Those are the spirit! Less words will have fewer impact. This is what it’s all about.

tw;1017219 wrote:

We need more English Nazis.

Exactly. Why should the Germans have all the fun?

Prime Minister's Question Time is on the TV as I type.
I happened to wander through the living room a few minutes ago, as a politician, in the highest of high dudgeon, complained about '500 less police officers'.
I am pleased to say that both my father and I (in even higher dudgeon, were that possible) yelled 'FEWER' at the offender.
Standards are slipping these days.

footfootfoot;1017143 wrote:

One of my nails on the blackboard things is when people use the word ‘less’ with countable nouns instead of ‘fewer’.

As in, “there’s less people...”.

Y'all may have heard that I've been editing the 25th edition of a major med school book. One would think that the book would be pretty clean, gramatically, after having been reviewed at least 24 times in the previous years.

One would be mistaken.

Of note, "Less people are getting married . . . " :facepalm:

Glinda;1017358 wrote:

Of note, "Less people are getting married . . . "

From Merriam-Webster:

The traditional view is that less applies to matters of degree, value, or amount and modifies collective nouns, mass nouns, or nouns denoting an abstract whole while fewer applies to matters of number and modifies plural nouns. Less has been used to modify plural nouns since the days of King Alfred and the usage, though roundly decried, appears to be increasing. Less is more likely than fewer to modify plural nouns when distances, sums of money, and a few fixed phrases are involved. "ess than 100 miles" "an investment of less than $2000" "in 25 words or less" and "as likely as fewer to modify periods of time". "in less (or fewer) than four hours"

There's a commonly repeated rule about fewer and less. It goes like this: fewer is used to refer to number among things that are counted, as in "fewer choices" and "fewer problems"; less is used to refer to quantity or amount among things that are measured, as in "less time" and "less effort."

Less has been used this way for well over a thousand years—nearly as long as there's been a written English language. But for more than 200 years almost every usage writer and English teacher has declared such use to be wrong. The received rule seems to have originated with the critic Robert Baker, who expressed it not as a law but as a matter of personal preference. Somewhere along the way—it's not clear how—his preference was generalized and elevated to an absolute, inviolable rule.

In short, it just does not matter. Only thing that matters: is what the author is saying understood? IEEE Spectrum once wrote an article about English Nazis. They misspelled almost every word. That article was easily read and understood. English Nazis failed to censor it.

Only an author choses 'less' or 'few' based only in what he wants to say. He (not an English Nazi) chooses what he thinks best states his point.

Spelling and grammar, in rare cases, is necessary so that one who reads does not see something different from one who writes it. So better spelling, grammar, and punctuation is useful. Punctuation often more important than spelling or grammar.

Most every English teacher I had was enthralled with following the rules; could not bother with concepts such as logical thought. Another example of one entranced by what they were ordered to believe and with contempt for what is really relevant.

They were lesser thinkers. Hopefully they will become fewer.

tw;1017219 wrote:

We need more English Nazis.

footfootfoot;1017221 wrote:

Exactly. Why should the Germans have all the fun?

Wenn du willst, mein fewer.

tw;1017366 wrote:

In short, it just does not matter.

Oh, it absolutely does matter.

tw;1017366 wrote:

Only an author choses 'less' or 'few' based only in what he wants to say. He (not an English Nazi) chooses what he thinks best states his point.

And then the author's editors and proofreaders (you know, the "Grammar Nazis" :eek:) correct his shit to remove ambiguity and improve readability. And to protect his moronic ass from rightful criticism.

tw;1017366 wrote:

Spelling and grammar, in [COLOR="Silver"]rare [/COLOR]all cases, is necessary so that one who reads does not see something different from one who writes it. So better spelling, grammar, and punctuation is useful. Punctuation often more important than spelling or grammar.

[SIZE="1"]Also, "Spelling and grammar ARE necessary . . . " Sheesh. [/SIZE]

tw;1017366 wrote:

Most every English teacher I had was enthralled with following the rules; could not bother with concepts such as logical thought. Another example of one entranced by what they were ordered to believe and with contempt for what is really relevant.

They were lesser thinkers. Hopefully they will become fewer.

Happily, there are plenty of people on the planet with a completely different view. It keeps me in beer and skittles.

:crazy:

Final statement: Words MEAN things. Next time you have something to say about Trump's assenine rhetoric, remind yourself of this. WORDS fucking MEAN THINGS. Neither you nor Trump can hide behind "it doesn't matter."

Editors...

Glinda;1017414 wrote:

Oh, it absolutely does matter.

Everyone knows exactly what that sign means - even with the missing word "and".

A perfect example of what I posted. Only a lawyer would care. Even the judge would probably throw out any resulting lawsuit. Since only English Nazis care about a missing AND.

Eventually the sign will be changed - for the same reason we also clean water spots from windows. It is nice to do. And it certainly is not necessary.

As an IEEE Spectrum article so accurately demonstrated with every sentence full of errors. It was completely readable; the point glaringly well made.

Glinda;1017414 wrote:

Clearly this sign is Grandmatical. But there's no period.

Gravdigr;1017369 wrote:

Wenn du willst, mein fewer.

Mein fewer?

Rly? Nthng?

That was funnier than funny. I'm gonna larf and larf, I can't wait for you people, I got things to do, people to see, dope to smoke...

Mein fewer. Ya get it don't ya?

:p:

monster;1017437 wrote:

Clearly this sign is Grandmatical. But there's no period.

Clearly an grandmatical era.

Gravdigr;1017448 wrote:

Mein fewer?

Rly? Nthng?

That was funnier than funny. I'm gonna larf and larf, I can't wait for you people, I got things to do, people to see, dope to smoke...

Mein fewer. Ya get it don't ya?

:p:

I laughed, Mr G! Honest, I did! :)

Gravdigr;1017448 wrote:

Mein fewer?

Rly? Nthng?

That was funnier than funny. I'm gonna larf and larf, I can't wait for you people, I got things to do, people to see, dope to smoke...

Mein fewer. Ya get it don't ya?

:p:

Mein Lesser?

Sieg heil Mein fewer. :rolleyes:

I'm sure multiple people chortled. And if not, you can send them to see myself or someone else.

Well, I know you folks are busy and all...:rolleyes:

Rules rule, even if you are unaware...

Google scanned all the books at their disposal (a shitload) and found out the word "winner" is the winner.

how 'bout "winningest"?

Looking Forward to the musical "South Specific".....

Gravdigr;1017517 wrote:

Well, I know you folks are busy and all...:rolleyes:

I was, but just got back to this and I laughed until I stopped. when I saw that it was you who wrote it I was not surprised, but gratified that your wit is as clever as ever.

monster;1017691 wrote:

Looking Forward to the musical "South Specific".....

Sam and Janet Evening! You may meet a stranger...

And the seasonal RomCom with Hugh Grant ... "Love Literally".

Shouldn't that chart say 'Winner' and 'Looser'?

I don't think anyone speaks perfect English (apart from The Queen of course *doffs cap*). I like the way people corrupt it sometimes, whether on purpose or not. It can be a part of their personality. If you get too anal about it and correct people all the time that can become tedious. I suppose some are more tolerant than others on this matter. It can also be down to how educated you are as to how much you know about the language. If you skipped a lot of school you're probably not going to know much about split infinitives.

there's a school of thought that to boldly split infinitives is ok in current parlance....

I'm all for playing with language and having fun with corruptions, puns, spoonerisms, intentionally transposing letters and words for humorous intent.

I correct only my children, but occasionally I'll help out a friend so he or she doesn't sound ignant when they don't want to.

Maybe because my parents died in the apostrophe mines, punctuation is a bit of a sore point for me. Grammar, less so.

I tell my kids not to use big words that they don't understand just because they think it makes them sound more photosynthesis; it doesn't.

footfootfoot wrote:

I tell my kids not to use big words that they don't understand just because they think it makes them sound more photosynthesis; it doesn't.

But especially don't use little words they don't understand, because it's probably a slur and they didn't realize it.

footfootfoot;1017897 wrote:

Maybe because my parents died in the apostrophe mines...

Actually laughed out loud.

Gravdigr;1017448 wrote:

Mein fewer?

Rly? Nthng?

That was funnier than funny. I'm gonna larf and larf, I can't wait for you people, I got things to do, people to see, dope to smoke...

Mein fewer. Ya get it don't ya?

:p:

I just saw this. And I larfed.

:jig:

Clodfobble;1017906 wrote:

But especially don't use little words they don't understand, because it's probably a slur and they didn't realize it.

With my fucking mouth? They know all the little words, but we follow the principle of, there are no bad words; just inappropriate audiences.

footfootfoot;1018013 wrote:

... there are no bad words; just inappropriate audiences.

Trump rally?

Griff;1018026 wrote:

Trump rally?

Total inappropriateness and badness in words, thoughts, and deeds.

footfootfoot wrote:

With my fucking mouth? They know all the little words, but we follow the principle of, there are no bad words; just inappropriate audiences.

I just went back through the whole "Funny/Embarrassing Things They Say" thread, thinking I had already posted this little gem, but apparently I hadn't:

Minifob: [gets two people confused with each other]
Me: No no, that was the boyfriend before this one. She's had more than one boyfriend.
Minifob: [in all earnestness, proud to have made the connection and with no negative connotations] Oh, you mean she's a slut.

Ha!

footfootfoot;1017897 wrote:

I'm all for playing with language and having fun with corruptions, puns, spoonerisms, intentionally transposing letters and words for humorous intent.

Absotively. Word play is one of my favorite things, and a HUGE reason why I love this place. You all are so clever, so witty. ;)

footfootfoot;1017897 wrote:

Maybe because my parents died in the apostrophe mines, punctuation is a bit of a sore point for me. Grammar, less so.

I tell my kids not to use big words that they don't understand just because they think it makes them sound more photosynthesis; it doesn't.

^^^PRIME EXAMPLE ^^^ :D

Of course, I earn a living by getting it RIGHT, so I'm scrupulous and highly anal when it comes to my work. On a personal level, I don't always follow the rules when speaking and I don't usually bother to correct others on such matters (written or spoken). *

But in the end, using the right words, punctuation, and grammar are representations of one's self. If you're ok with appearing the fool, that's on you.


* Caveat: If they're online a-hole morons, I'll gleefully rip 'em up.

Clodfobble;1018055 wrote:

Oh, you mean she's a slut.

So she gets it, then...

:p: