this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2024
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Recently I've started to think that these and other similar battles are lost.
It just feels so petty. Not a single person reading "less cops" was confused by its meaning. I get fighting against misuse of your/you're, its/it's, etc. because they can make things harder to read. Fewer and less, though, have the exact same underlying meaning (a reduction).
I'm something of a grammar Nazi, but just like I support letting "whom" die, "less" and "fewer" might as well just be interchangeable. There's no loss of language utility in doing so, unlike "literally"'s tragic demise.
Ah don't let whom die. It's a really good lesson in subject vs object.
I think by letting it die they mean not policing people to use it. It's fun to use old grammar and words but it shouldn't be required if you're a native speaker.