I've used the phrase "as few as one individual from the business has contact with the customer" in a paper and the more I look at it, the more wrong it looks! But "as little as one individual" doesn't seem any better. I can count 'individuals' i.e. people, so should it be 'as few as'? If anyone can rephrase this without using either less or fewer that would also solve the problem!
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Only one individual. – Skooba May 14 '20 at 12:14
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2It's not only "grammatical" - to as little* as one* has almost always been significantly more common than to as few* as one. But in your exact* context I'd go for something like *Sometimes only one individual from the business [blah blah]*. – FumbleFingers May 14 '20 at 12:22
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@FumbleFingers That doesn't take into account differences in countable/uncountable usages, where few is used for countable and little for uncountable. Also idiomatic usages like "as little as one spoonful" (measuring quantity, so uncountable even though spoonsful are countable). – Andrew Leach May 14 '20 at 12:26
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1@AndrewLeach: True, but the first part of my comment was just to give the lie to OP's "the more I look at it, the more wrong it looks" as regards just those 5 words. They're not actually "wrong" - they just don't suit OP's exact context. And although there are several written instances of as little* as one spoonful* in Google Books, there are none at all for as few* as one spoonful*, so maybe "countable / uncountable" is irrelevant here. – FumbleFingers May 14 '20 at 12:43
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@Andrew Leach 'few is used for countable and little for uncountable [situations]' Not always, at least the first part. The idiomaticity of each individual expression needs looking at. – Edwin Ashworth May 14 '20 at 14:03
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Thanks everyone, especially @FumbleFingers, very helpful :) - also good to know there's a bit of ambiguity/flexibility here regarding the less/fewer rule – barefeetandbiscuits May 14 '20 at 15:33
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Stretching a point, perhaps, but does this answer your question? Is "I've told you at fewest ten times" grammatical? – FumbleFingers May 14 '20 at 15:47
2 Answers
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How would the parallel word appear?
As much as 10 and as little as one. (Both "much" and "little" seem wrong here.)
As many as 10 and as few as one. (This sounds fine to me.)
Packard
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There are several possibilities.
- merely one individual…
- no more than one individual
- a sole individual
LPH
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None of these mean the same thing as 'as little/few as one individual' which has the meaning, 1 person is the least amount, but there can potentially be more. – barefeetandbiscuits May 16 '20 at 11:41