“There are less people in the room.”
People are countable — one, two, three. ‘Less’ is for amounts you can’t count.
Usage Entry 03 / 1011 60-second read
Less vs. Fewer
For things you measure versus things you count.
The comparisoni
“There are fewer people in the room.”
‘Fewer’ agrees with countable nouns. Supermarkets get this wrong; you don’t have to.
More examplesii
01
Less than ten employees showed up.
Fewer than ten employees showed up.
Employees are counted one by one — ‘fewer.’
02
Fewer time was spent on the review.
Less time was spent on the review.
Time is a continuous amount here, not discrete units — ‘less.’
The ruleiii
¶
FEWER for count. LESS for amount.
If you can put a number in front of it, use FEWER. If you can’t, use LESS. Fewer chairs, less furniture.
Notesiv
Register
Long-standing rule in edited writing. In casual speech, ‘less’ with countables (‘less people’) is common but still noticed.
Watch for
Plural units of measure (‘less than 5 miles,’ ‘less than $20,’ ‘less than two hours’) keep ‘less’ — because they refer to a single quantity, not individual items.
Memory aidv
Remember it like this
You count people, not water. Fewer people, less water.
In the wildvi
Real-world-style usage — how this looks in a sentence people would actually write.
- The express lane is for customers with fewer than ten items — not ‘less than ten.’
- With less sugar and fewer calories, the revised recipe was still the best-seller.
Test yourselfvii
Which is right?