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grammar - Which is more correct "fewer than hundred people" or "less than hundred people"?





When is “less” appropriate vs. “fewer”?



Which is more correct "fewer than hundred people" or "less than hundred people"? According to my grammar book, "few' is used for number where as "less" is used to imply quantity,so I think "fewer than hundred people" is more correct but Google ngrams speaks otherwise.


Which is more correct?



Answer



Well, for reasons you've already seen, it depends on your definition of "correct".


If by "correct", you mean "conforming with usage in the type of literature/writing/speech that I wish to use", then the ngram results give you a partial answer, but you may also wish to have a look at some of the actual results and see what genre of writing they're from, or look at results specifically from the literature corpus if you're interested in fairly "formal" usage. But as a generality, both "less" and "fewer" are possible in this case, as evidenced in the figures you have.


If by "correct" you mean "conforming with the usage stipulated in my grammar book", then you know which usage your grammar book advocates, and you need to think about whether you actually find the grammar book's argumentation convincing and compelling, and whether you have any particular reason to go with its recommendation rather than your evidence of actual usage.


P.S. In any case, you need to include the "a" in "a hundred".


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