Fewer versus less

Fewer versus less is the debate revolving around grammatically using the words fewer and less correctly. The common perspective of today is that fewer should be used (instead of less) with nouns for countable objects and concepts (discretely quantifiable nouns, or count nouns). On the other hand less should be used only with a grammatically singular noun (including mass nouns). This distinction was first expressed by grammarian Robert Baker in 1770, and has been supported as a general rule since then by other notable grammarians. However, a more recent perspective based on current usage notes that, while the rule for fewer stands, the word less is used more fluidly. This rule can be seen in the examples "there is less flour in this canister" and "there are fewer cups (grains, pounds, bags, etc.) of flour in this canister", which are based on the reasoning that flour is uncountable whereas the unit used to measure the flour (cup, etc.) is countable. However, some prescriptivists prescribe the rule addition that less should be used with units of measurement (e.g. "less than 10 pounds/dollars"). Prescriptivists might, however, consider "fewer cups of coffee" to be correct in a sentence such as "there are fewer cups of coffee on the table now", where the cups are countable separate objects. In addition, "less" is sometimes recommended in front of counting nouns that denote distance, amount, or time. For example, "we go on holiday in fewer than four weeks" and "he can run the 100 m in fewer than ten seconds" are not advised by some people. Some prescriptivists argue that the rare and unidiomatic one fewer should be used instead of one less (both when used alone or together with a singular, discretely quantifiable noun as in "there is one fewer cup on this table"), but Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage says that "of course [less] follows one. The comparative less is used with both countable and uncountable nouns in some informal discourse environments and in most dialects of English.