As a native English speaker, i’m gonna have to disagree. Using “fewer” there would be inappropriately formal at best, and pretentious at worst. The phrase “a few less” is entirely correct here.
…it’s hard being a Descriptivist who was raised Prescriptivist; I got fifty-odd languages under my belt and I still have that “but do it RIGHT” perfectionism stuck in my brain, and it comes out now and then.
You’re right, “a few less” has become standard English, and I should have no complaints with it — and you’re right about it being a difference of register. Some word choices or phrasing choices mark the speech as being in a certain register, and the register needs to match the circumstances.
Much like the pronunciation of “nuclear” or the use of “ain’t” — which, I learned, is not a strict substitution, but an intensifier: “I’m not going to do it” is less intense than “I ain’t doing it.”
Hey, Teach, you can’t be critiquing Selkie’s grammar when you use “less” for countable nouns.
“A few fewer” or “Without as many” but not “less” pluralses.
By the by, I love how you drew Kin Ro there. Really quite nice, in overall body structure, posture, expression, gesture, the whole thing.
Technically that’s vocab failure, not grammar failure 😛
Also, “few fewer” sounds hideous. I choose to believe Mrs. Tu-Daire deliberately used the wrong expression for that very reason 😀
Also, while she is a speech therapist she is also teaching in a second language. Occasional errors in word choice aren’t unusual.
As a native English speaker, i’m gonna have to disagree. Using “fewer” there would be inappropriately formal at best, and pretentious at worst. The phrase “a few less” is entirely correct here.
…it’s hard being a Descriptivist who was raised Prescriptivist; I got fifty-odd languages under my belt and I still have that “but do it RIGHT” perfectionism stuck in my brain, and it comes out now and then.
You’re right, “a few less” has become standard English, and I should have no complaints with it — and you’re right about it being a difference of register. Some word choices or phrasing choices mark the speech as being in a certain register, and the register needs to match the circumstances.
Much like the pronunciation of “nuclear” or the use of “ain’t” — which, I learned, is not a strict substitution, but an intensifier: “I’m not going to do it” is less intense than “I ain’t doing it.”
She could be doing speech therapy in gym class.
Only a sick and twisted mind would come up with that combo… I like you. 😉
Eeeyyyy there she is!! I loves her
Speech teacher is really cute.
Like handing in an essay about something deeply personal and having it handed back marked up for grammatical errors.