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Monday, April 13, 2009

Poll Results 31

This was the question:

What do you think of this TV slogan? "More movie, less commercials"

I know it's ungrammatical but I don't care. 15 (21%)

I know it's ungrammatical and I wish TNT would stop using it. 50 (71%)

I don't see what's wrong with it. 5 (7%)

For those who don't know what's wrong, the issue here is countable and noncountable nouns. You would say less sugar because sugar is not countable. You would say fewer commercials because they are countable.

I found this interesting couple of paragraphs in which the "fewer" and "less" situation is messed up at the end:

The airline industry flew fewer people in 2008 but treated them better, arriving on time more often and losing fewer bags. Passengers also were not as apt to be bumped from flights by overbooking, which was a big problem when airlines were running at or over capacity.

The downside: Less flights, higher prices — some airlines now charge extra for any luggage — and fewer frills.

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

Just wondering about your sentence: "I found this interesting couple of paragraphs..." Wouldn't it be more appropriate to write "...these interesting paragraphs..." or "...this interesting pair of paragraphs..."? It seems to me that "this couple" sounds awkward. Could you let me know what you think? Thanks

The Sentence Sleuth said...

Probably "these two paragraphs" would sound better.
Anyone else object to "this couple of paragraphs?"

Westley said...

If you were talking about a husband and wife, you could easily say something about 'this couple', so why not group the paragraphs similarly?

I don't mind it.