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In this this Youtube video the following question is posed at the 4:20 time mark:

Which of these is correct?

The baby weighed fewer than 2 pounds at birth.

OR

The baby weighed less than 2 pounds at birth.

Lucy states in her video that the correct sentence is the first one. This has caused a heated debate in our family with a family member disagreeing with her on this point. Is Lucy correct here?

BruceHill
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  • I understand and agree 100% that "fewer" should be used for countable nouns and "less" should be used for non-countable. The question here, in essence, is: Is weight countable or not? – BruceHill Sep 19 '21 at 11:38
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    Is Lucy a native Anglophone? Per this NGram, there are almost no contexts where the sequence *weighed fewer than* would occur naturally in English. – FumbleFingers Sep 19 '21 at 11:38
  • I don't know anything about Lucy except that she is a Youtuber that my son listens to who has a channel on English usage. I take it that she is a native English speaker. – BruceHill Sep 19 '21 at 11:50
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    To my ear, weighing “fewer” than 2 pounds suggests weighing 1 pound. Or perhaps zero pounds if one wanted to push it, but in any event, an integer number of pounds. – Lawrence Sep 19 '21 at 11:59
  • To me, fewer would only make sense here if babies came in countable parts. – KillingTime Sep 19 '21 at 12:00
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    Strange. She's obviously a native speaker, but she's completely mistaken about this particular usage, as I'm sure my previous NGram link makes clear. The sequence *Babies weighing less than two pounds at birth are at risk* occurs dozens of times in Google Books. But as I fully expected, *babies weighing fewer than two pounds* doesn't occur *at all. (So despite my "dup" closevote, I'm upvoting* this "curious find"! :) – FumbleFingers Sep 19 '21 at 12:02
  • ...I think all it really goes to show is that *less / fewer* is rapidly becoming another one like *who / whom, or I don't like him / his doing that*. Aspects of usage where less and less native speakers care about the fine distinctions promoted by pedants and grammarians. – FumbleFingers Sep 19 '21 at 12:08
  • What @Lawrence said is the clincher here. The *only* contextually valid value "less than" two pounds is a baby weighing *one pound* (since we can ignore the possibility of babies that weigh *zero pounds!* :) If the expression "fewer than" is used, it normally implies *a whole integer number* (of the current contextually established "measuring units"). – FumbleFingers Sep 19 '21 at 12:13
  • I think that this question deserves to be answered rather than closed – BruceHill Sep 19 '21 at 12:16
  • @FumbleFingers Thanks for the upvote – BruceHill Sep 19 '21 at 12:36
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    Seeing that this question has been closed, rather than answered, let me give my perspective. If Lucy were correct here, then the following sentences would also be correct "I will be there in fewer than 10 minutes" and "My dad is fewer than 6 feet tall". These sentences, like Lucy's one, "The baby weighed fewer than 2 pounds at birth", are all incorrect, because time, height and weight are all measured and not counted. As such, the use of "fewer" is incorrect in all of these contexts. – BruceHill Sep 19 '21 at 12:51
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    ... and "Buy one costing fewer than $20". Continuous measures, and measures treated as if they were continuous (eg money), don't accept 'fewer'. The question has been closed because all this has been covered before. As also has the fact that there are exceptions to ' "fewer" should be used for countable [usages of] nouns'. "That's one less problem" is idiomatic whereas "That's one fewer problem" isn't. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 19 '21 at 13:17
  • @FumbleFingers It's [very] arguable that using less for discrete quantities treated as continuous (eg 'cost less than $3') is refined use of language. Certainly 'less than 7.00 lbs / 3.17515kg' makes far more sense than using 'fewer', weight being a continuous variable. And it makes sense to retain the distinction when using rounded figures (less than 7 lbs / 3200g). – Edwin Ashworth Sep 19 '21 at 13:52
  • @EdwinAshworth: I understand "refined use of language" as "poetic". But I see nothing poetic / literary about saying This cost less than £10, Nine is one less than ten, He's less than six feet tall. – FumbleFingers Sep 19 '21 at 14:21
  • @FF Try Lexico subsense 1.2 say: << refined: ... Developed or improved so as to be precise or subtle. ‘building up a more refined profile of the customer's needs’ >>// or Dictionary.com: << ... (4) very subtle, precise, or exact: refined distinctions. Obviously intended in my comment. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 19 '21 at 15:40

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