Determiners less, fewer

Determiners	VerbsList	Tense
Voice	Narration	Preposition

Determiners: less, fewer

Table of Contents

• Articles A and AN
  
• Article The
  
• Few, a few, the few
  
• Little, a little, the little
  
• Much, many
  
• Some, any
  
• Each, every
  
• Either, neither
  
• Less, fewer

Determiners less, fewer

Less

Less denotes quantity. Less refers to a smaller amount of something.
Less is used to indicate amounts that can be measured and not counted one by one. For example, water, oil, time, sugar and so son.

Examples of less

1. Unfortunately we experienced less rain this year. (=here we used less as we cannot count rain)
2. She was sad as she got less candy on her birthday. (=here we are not counting the pieces one by one but referring to the whole amount).
3. Tom could not buy the book as he had less money.
4. You cannot buy less than 5 kilograms of wheat.
5. We had less money, so we had to comfort ourselves with less than half a plate of rice.

Fewer

Fewer denotes number. Like less, fewer also refers to a smaller amount of something.


Fewer refers to items that we can count one by one. For example, books, pens, apples and so on.

Examples of fewer

1. He could not win as he received fewer votes than his opponent. (=here votes can be counted, so we used fewer)
2. No fewer than 50 soldiers were killed in the battle.
3. The area was devastated by flood, but people faced fewer difficulties this time due to the initiation of prompt relief by the government.
4. The earthquake caused fewer landslides than expected.
5. The postponement of the program resulted in a fewer number of participants this year.

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Determiners	VerbsList	Tense
Voice	Narration	Preposition

TODAY'S QUESTION

Fill in the blanks with less, fewer.

No _____ than one thousand people were present at the function.
The huge pumpkin weighed no _____ than 10 pounds.

Post your answers below in the comment box.