Quote:
Originally Posted by afa
An interesting point. I'm not sure whether it should be. From what I understand, fewer is used when referring to an indeterminate amount of objects. So if we remove the '100' from the sentence, then it fits, i.e. "People in 2011 read fewer books than in 2001," or something like that.
Since we are mentioning a specific count, however, I think using less is acceptable.
Of course, I could be wrong. I am by no means an expert on grammar. I would be interested, though, for someone to chime in on this.
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"Fewer" applies to (potentially) countable items, "less" to materials that are measured in other ways. "Less bread", but "fewer loaves". There are also things like "money", which refers to countable numbers of coins, notes, and so on but is not itself countable. You can't say, "I have three money", so it is "less money" rather than "fewer money".