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Adjective [a compar. of] little [with] least [as superl.]

  1. fewer: less than a dozen.

https://www.wordreference.com/definition/less

A dozen is semantically plural ("twelve") yet it is grammatically singular, so which form is correct fewer/less than a dozen?

Secondly, what about Fewer/less than a dozen people?

Determiner (preceded by a or a numeral):

a.) (a group of) twelve: two dozen oranges.

b.) (as pronoun; functioning as sing or plural) There are at least a dozen who haven't arrived yet.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/dozen

GJC
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  • A dozen means twelve; so we say fewer. – Michael Harvey Oct 27 '20 at 10:12
  • @MichaelHarvey Counterargument: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/fewer-less-than-a-dozen-people.3755980/#post-19177314 – GJC Oct 27 '20 at 10:34
  • We can count to one, so if you’re going purely by whether the term is countable, use “fewer”. Just be aware that generic usage of fewer/less is somewhat more malleable. – Lawrence Oct 27 '20 at 10:56
  • The fewer/less distinction is much less enforced than before, and descriptive grammarians point out that this rule does not correctly describe the most common usage of today or the past and in fact arose as an incorrect generalization of a personal preference expressed by a grammarian in 1770. – Michael Harvey Oct 27 '20 at 11:06
  • My sense of usage suggests that as with so many other distinctions, that between 'less' and 'fewer' is wearing out, if it hasn't already done so. – Tuffy Oct 27 '20 at 11:43
  • The choice would be based on context. – Hot Licks Oct 27 '20 at 12:11
  • Less vs. Fewer and all the merged, duplicates, and related questions. – livresque Oct 27 '20 at 14:12
  • Does this answer your question? "Less" vs. "fewer". nohat's answer is definitive; others (especially the accepted answer) are over-prescriptive. Here (1) 'a dozen' must be seen as a numeral-variant, and 'a dozen people' treated exactly the same as '12 people'. (2) 'people' is not seen as a true unit ('It is less than 12 miles to London' is mandatory). (3) In many contexts, 'use fewer for discrete and less for non-discrete examples' is far too broad-brush. No one says "That's one fewer problem." As here. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 27 '20 at 14:42
  • Does this answer your question? "Less" vs. "fewer". nohat's answer is definitive; others tend to be over-prescriptive. Here (1) 'a dozen' must be seen as a numeral-variant, and 'a dozen people' treated exactly the same as '12 people'. (2) 'people' is not seen as a true unit ('It is less than 12 miles to London' is mandatory). (3) In many contexts, 'use fewer for discrete and less for non-discrete examples' is far too broad-brush. No one says "That's one fewer problem." ... – Edwin Ashworth Oct 27 '20 at 14:47
  • With 'Less/Fewer than a dozen people ...' I'd say either is quite acceptable even in formal registers (these Google 5grams have them running neck and neck), with the popular preference for 'less', to all but pedants. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 27 '20 at 14:49
  • @EdwinAshworth numeral-variant? Garner's fourth edition reads

    "As a noun, less means “a smaller amount” or “something not as important.” Occasionally, writers make it an adjective when it should be a noun (“He wants business to make money and everyone to pay less taxes [read less in taxes]). Less for singular nouns or units of measure: less tonic water, one less golfer, less than six ounces of epoxy"

     – GJC Oct 27 '20 at 14:54
  • @GJC I'm saying 'a dozen' is treated grammatically like a numeral, not a quantifier, where affordances differ. // And have you compared ngrams for 'a few less people' v 'a few fewer people'? – Edwin Ashworth Oct 27 '20 at 15:16

2 Answers2

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"A Dozen" literally means "12". They are interchangeable in every context, even if it sound odd for phrases we are used to. The movie, "The Dirty 12"? "Ocean's Dozen"?

12 is a counting number, an integer. Fewer than 12. Fewer than a dozen. To be precisely correct. Even so, there will be time 'less than' sounds ok. "I'm less than a dozen miles from home, please turn the lights on."

JTP - Apologise to Monica
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A dozen is either 12 items seen individually, or a group of twelve items seen as one unit.

Which interpretation you intend

Fewer/less than a dozen people?

will dictate whether you use "fewer" or "less"

Greybeard
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  • What part of speech would be used in each of the four possible combinations Fewer/less than a dozen (people)? – GJC Oct 27 '20 at 15:50
  • In the specimen answer at the duplicate (why do people ignore site policy on these things?), CGEL licenses 'ii. Less/Fewer than thirty of the students had voted.' This shows that Pullum etc consider the use of 'less' a valid alternative to 'fewer' in at least some examples involving pure count usages. – Edwin Ashworth Oct 27 '20 at 16:01
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    Pullum's opinion is his opinion. CGEL and other publications quoted here from time to time appear to be actively pushing the English language in a certain direction (rather than merely acknowledging a drift). My opinion is that that's not a good thing. – Andrew Leach Oct 27 '20 at 21:24
  • @Andrew Leach Yes, I only cite the CGEL party when I agree. admittedly, and I've banked your comment. However, C S Lewis spoke on non-patterning rules hereabouts ('more than one person was hurt in the crash'), and surely no one says 'That's one fewer problem' nowadays. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 26 '20 at 16:08
  • @Andrew Leach Yes, I only cite the CGEL party when I agree, admittedly, and I've banked your comment, as I also agree with that. However, C S Lewis spoke on non-patterning rules hereabouts ('more than one person was hurt in the crash'), and surely no one says 'That's one fewer problem' nowadays. I'd also expect to hear 'Less than thirty of the students had voted' more often than 'Fewer than thirty of the students had voted'. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 26 '20 at 16:17
  • ... And these Google ngrams would seem to show that the trending is not all from 'fewer than 30 of the' to 'less than ...'. Very surprising and interesting.... Hm, getting worse ... – Edwin Ashworth Nov 26 '20 at 16:20
  • Google 5grams for 'not less than thirty of', 'not fewer than thirty of' Similarly for 'not less/fewer than fifty of'; 'not less/fewer than a hundred'. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 26 '20 at 16:24