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Off topic: few or less ? Tesco's answer
Thread poster: nordiste
Angela Dickson (X)
Angela Dickson (X)  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:57
French to English
+ ...
Hours Sep 9, 2008

Marjory Hord wrote:

On an assignment my translation students did from spanish, was the phrase "less/fewer than 24 hours later" and I indicated that "fewer" was correct much as several preferred less. I mean it is a count noun, right?


'Fewer' sounds wrong to me here. Hours are indeed countable, but it's most likely that the period of time indicated is counted in parts of hours rather than whole hours, so 'less than 24 hours later' works here.

Perhaps this generalises to all units of measurement - I'm not sure.
 
George Hopkins
George Hopkins
Local time: 22:57
Swedish to English
Re hours Sep 10, 2008

24 hours is a quantity, not a number. So, there you go, less than 24 hours is correct.
 
Wendy Cummings
Wendy Cummings  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:57
Spanish to English
+ ...
time factors Sep 10, 2008

Marjory Hord wrote:

On an assignment my translation students did from spanish, was the phrase "less/fewer than 24 hours later" and I indicated that "fewer" was correct much as several preferred less. I mean it is a count noun, right?


I'm with Angela. For me, "Fewer than 24 hours" would imply 23 hours, 18 hours, 7 hours, 5 hours etc.

"Less than 24 hours" would mean any shorter amount of time, including minute divisions.
 
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few or less ? Tesco's answer






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