讨论fewer than 用法

清华_CA2u0

今天跟孩子讲到fewer than 的用法不知道对不对想请教下大家，我的理解是比较数量多少用 more than 跟 less than 而比较数字大小用 greater than 跟 fewer than ，那么fewer than 还用于什么方面的比较呢
感觉口语中用less than 的多些，很少用到fewer than 是否 less than也能替代fewer than 呢

D22soso

现在fewer已经很少用了，到底哪个对，语法上有争议，管他娘的，用LESS准没错。除了后接PEOPLE和如说不清楚究竟是总量更少还是品种更少，这两种情况下用fewer多些。这些是我对美语的理解，其他不清楚。

jinguitang

我们读书的时候，一个用在可数名词，一个用在不可数名词，现在不知道怎么样

小核桃julia

没有fewer than、greater than的用法吧，都是fewer、greater表示较少的、较多的。你这个fewer than从来没见过。

D22soso

小核桃julia 发表于 2017-11-22 19:12
没有fewer than、greater than的用法吧，都是fewer、greater表示较少的、较多的。你这个fewer than从来没见 ...

Grose chose Tencel because its manufacture produces fewer pollutants than traditional rayon.顺带对应用fewer 的第二种情况。大部分用LESS就行，想那么多干啥。

gniwzero

用在钱、时间、重量、距离上，都是Fewer than，所以楼主观察到的有数字时候用Fewer than也是有点道理的

Manddy

韦氏大学辞典的辨析：
less vs. fewer
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 less 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

牛津辞典网站上的辨析，还有一篇博客：
People often don’t know when to use less and when to use fewer in a sentence. Here’s how to get it right.

Use fewer if you’re referring to people or things in the plural (e.g. houses, newspapers, dogs, students, children). For example:

People these days are buying fewer newspapers.

Fewer students are opting to study science-related subjects.

Fewer than thirty children each year develop the disease.

Use less when you’re referring to something that can’t be counted or doesn’t have a plural (e.g. money, air, time, music, rain). For example:

It’s a better job but they pay you less money.

People want to spend less time in traffic jams.

Ironically, when I’m on tour, I listen to less music.

Less is also used with numbers when they are on their own and with expressions of measurement or time, e.g.:

His weight fell from 18 stone to less than 12.

Their marriage lasted less than two years.

Heath Square is less than four miles away from Dublin city centre.

You can read more about using less and fewer on the Oxford Dictionaries blog. Here you will find tips on how to use less and fewer correctly as well as exceptions to the general rules about their usage.

D22soso

随手翻了下老友记的词频表，LESS出现61次，FEWER出现4次。事实上FEWER已经很少人用，那些研究语法的人是斗不过人民群众！