Oh FFS!

that's conditioning only, otherwise languages as syntactically
different as English and German (for example) wouldn't have evolved
from common roots.

 

Lozzo scribbled:

As yet another proud recipient of a comprehensive education, I'd
like to say : "You bastard, I'll forward you the bill for cleaning the
keyboard!

 

Continously measurable things? According to some in 'ere there's no
such thing (something to do with noisy wind) so I say we ban the word
"less".

Then there'll be one fewer thing to worry about.

 

frag said...

If it tickled just one person, then I'm happy.

 

It's shit for cooking though.

'This chilli is hot'

Well, is it "spicy" or "too warm to put in your mouth" ?

c/f with "Piccante" and "Caldo".

Easy.

P.

 

The majority are not always right. Otherwise we should all speak
Cantonese..

It is actually a meaningful difference - one is less of a single entity
("there is less air in my tyres" where air is treated as a thing in it's
own right) as opposed to "I have fewer loaves of bread" where bread is
a multiple.

Phil.

 

"Mandarin".

 

Using "fewer" in place of "less" may demonstrate a more formal
education, or a more pedantic mindset (or both), thus giving information
about the writer to the reader

HTH

 

"Gook"

 

How does that change the meaning of the communication?

 

It doesn't. Champ wanted "a single example where this difference
actually has some use,"

 

Last time I looked, a comma did not indicate the end of sentence.

"I'm still waiting for a single example where this difference actually
has some use, and can change the meaning of the communication"

Careful, you're looking as thick as me here.

 

Which one of us are you insulting? (I'm NAH and not aware of any
reputation you may have)

 

Both of us.

 

MWHID

 

I doubt it will change your viewpoint but reading this (lost for words
by John Humphreys), if you have not already done so,

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...923551/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/203-8580317-7457518

may help you appreciate the subtleties and delights of the English
language and why mangling it through "common usage" is not all to do
with pedantry.

There is an aspect of the book where he admits he is being a grumpy old
man about the subject. However reading it has certainly made me think a
lot more about what I write and what I am trying to say.

 

Champ wrote

I agree with that.

 

Forsooth.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a
I demand nothing of you except that you amuse me.

Folding@Home Team UKRM
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=47957

 

Grimly Curmudgeon said...

Verily

 

That'll be news for Mullumbimby High, then....

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
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WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".