What’s the difference between dollars and money? Probably many things,
actually, but the one on which we’ll focus today is that the first is countable
and the second is not.
A countable noun is, as its name
implies, any noun which can be counted.
For example, we can count one table, two dreams, three students, or four
ideas. As the examples of dreams and
ideas demonstrate, a noun doesn’t need to be tangible to be countable.
A non-countable noun, by contrast, is
any noun that can’t be counted. For
example, we can’t count five rice, six courage, seven money, or eight
milk. (Some non-countable nouns can be
paired with counter nouns--five grains
of rice, or eight cups of
milk, for example.)
Why does this matter? It matters because according to the sometimes
arcane rules of English grammar, we use different words with countable and
non-countable nouns:
Countable Nouns
few
fewer
fewest
many
the number (of)
(counted)
Non-countable Nouns
little
less
least
much
the amount (of)
(measured)
So while it would be correct to say
“Carson counted Lord Grantham’s snuff boxes to ensure that the correct number
was in the case,” it would be incorrect to say “Carson measured Lord
Grantham’s snuff boxes to ensure that the correct amount was in the case” Snuff boxes are countable, so we must use the
words from the “Countable Noun” list.
In fact, many grammarians are driven crazy
at their local grocers when looking at express line signs that declare, “10
items or less.” Since items is a countable noun, the signs
should, of course, read, “10 items or fewer.”
One easy way to make sure you’ve
correctly applied this rule in your papers is to use the find function (Ctrl +
F), and look for “less.” (The
overwhelming number of errors occurs when writers use “less” for “fewer.”) Be sure you’ve used “fewer” for countables
and “less” for non-countables.
I hope this tip can be measured
counted among the much many helpful entries on our blog.
Happy writing!
James
James
