Someone at Trader Joe's had the good sense to correct their sign. Bravo.
"Less vs. Fewer" is one of the few grammatical pet peeves I have. You want to end your sentence in a preposition? Go right ahead (although that's not technically a rule). You like to dangle your participle? ... Knock yourself out! Don't know the difference between "Affect" and "Effect" - and you're too lazy to Google it? Me too!!
But the confusion between "Less" and "Fewer" makes me crazy. This is a pet peeve I inherited from my Mom ... so blame Mama Bunny if you don't like it.
It's all about "Count Nouns vs. Mass Nouns". LEARN IT.
the sad part: i'm NOT to lazy to google... in fact, i've google "affect" vs. "effect" and STILL don't fully get it! :D i do now know, however, that "affect" is used more often, so now i just use that as my default, LOL. so bad.
ReplyDeletethe grammatical errors that get me are it's/its and your/you're. they're simple ones, but every day i spend on teh interwebz is a day that i'm surprised by the number of people who don't know the difference.
PS: i TOLD YOU that trader joe's rocks! ^_^
ReplyDeleteOne encounters this particular grammatical faux pas oftem when dieting: it's "fewer" calories, not "less" calories!
ReplyDeleteThe one that drives Miss Ginger crazy is "their-there-they're".
And, here in the South, I have given up on expecting proper subject/verb agreement!
One of my undergrad degress was English. And less/fewer still confuses the hell out of me. LOL. The to/too/two, it's/its, there/their are so common. I always notice those errors.
ReplyDeleteI am going to get a 'Grammar Girl' widget... and the EFFECT that your journal has had on me has an AFFECT on how I view things!
ReplyDeleteFor instance, watching The Ting Tings on 'SNL' this weekend, the idea came to me... wouldn't this be a great song for the show 'Glee'? I wondered if I knew anyone who had enough 'pull' to get it out there, and I thought of you David!!
I can imagine the plot and maybe I could draft a screenplay around the cast with the perfomance of the song central to it...
... you never know, it could happen. I have seen more done with less, and it isn't like Hollywood would have fewer bad scripts floating around if I didn't add a bad one of mine to the total!
I have a degree in journalism so I'm not only the grammar police I'm also the punctuation nazi. All bad grammar irks me but the lose/loose errors send up my hackles. Oh and I belong to the "End with a Preposition and Die" club. ;)
ReplyDeleteI knew I liked Trader Joe's! I love that site! Thank you for showing it to me!
ReplyDeleteI hate the use of the nominative case after a preposition, as in "between he and I" instead of "between/for/with him and me" (objective case).
Affect is a verb meaning to influence. The word "affect" refers to emotion, too. Think affection. Ex: Trolls affect my blood pressure.
Effect is a noun and means result. Ex: What is the effect of the MA election?
I'm on the side of using the terminal comma for words in a series. What about you, Behrmark?
Dang I just learned something. My moms has a Ph.D. in English at taught at a University. She always corrected me, so I butchered the language on purpose.
ReplyDeleteThough I'm a journalist, this is the first i've heard of a count/mass noun. Thanks for the lesson.