common usage is not the enemy

No link, no AUR and hard to google, thanks.

edit: the joke fell flat, because i just came from a post about basht, which uses ueberzug or chafa (replacements for good ol Fbi-IMproved and Terminal Image Viewer) and looked before at baca (shell bookmark manager) and broot (replacement for tree)

So, yeah.

I’m also a non-native speaker and I’ve also been taught to speak a certain way (“you and I are going” but “he saw you and me”; don’t split infinitives; don’t end sentences with prepositions, etc.), but then I read Steven Pinker’s The Language Instinct and - even more relevant here - The Sense of Style. We’ve been taught to use language a certain way, but our teachers were following the prescriptivist school of thought. You say these rules were written by native folk, but it’s often (if not usually) the native folk that say less when they “should” be saying fewer.

I know you said it’s only mildly infuriating to you, but if proper use of language is something dear to your heart (as it is to mine) - I really recommend the above books as I think this is something not worth to get even mildly infuriated about. The border between less and fewer is fuzzier than you think and - in the words of Pinker - once you really master the distinction - that’s one fewer things for you to worry about.

bash: fewer: command not found

Honestly you have to be able to switch caring about that stuff off, when you want to, otherwise knowing any of these rules is more a curse than a blessing.

Ok so, as a native English speaker, let me inform you, that whatever you think is a rule in English, isn’t. It’s a guideline. It’s a hard language because we lack structure. The native teachers are teaching you the basic guidelines, not actual conversational English, which varies heavily on location, and social group.

This is Mildly Infuriating, not I’m dying if this doesn’t stop.

Equally, this is mildly infuriating not mildly irritating. The subreddit is for things you’re getting, albeit mildly, infuriated by.

It’s fine, OP - English is my native language and it irks me some, too, because It was a subject in school that I did really well in and tutored other students.

I’ve come to accept the fact that most folks will always say ‘less’ regardless of the context, I’m guilty of it at times, and at the end of the day it’s not a big deal. But I’m sorry you’re getting the reaction that you are.

My husband and I were actually discussing this a few days ago when I corrected him, again, but at this point it’s more of a running joke between us and he laughs (he is the only person who I ‘correct’ because it is a joke and he finds it funny; I’m not being an asshole when I do it and he knows that).

https://youtu.be/RGWiTvYZR_w

People using “fewer” instead of “less” would be far more infuriating. 'cause you know they know better and are trying to get a rise out of you :)

Sorry, I’ll do that fewer.

I refuse to acknowledge anyone’s struggle with common words like that except lose and loose.

Unlike less and fewer which are basically interchangeable unless you’re being pedantic lose and loose are two completely different words entirely

So what you’re saying is we need to use ‘less’ fewer?

Less people should be using “less” instead of “fewer”. 😜

I couldn’t care fewer.