Fewer or Less?

Supermarkets have been getting it wrong!

When you queue up with your basket in the "10 items or Less" aisle and look at the sign, you are observing a basic grammatical error.

The sign should read 10 Items or FEWER.

This is because we use "FEWER" for something we can definitely count e.g. "There are fewer than 3 chickens in the coop"

You use LESS when you can't specify the quantity eg "there is less air than before in the tyre".

After pressure from the Campaign for Plain English, Tesco is changing their signs to "Up to 10 Items", thus avoiding annoying people like me complaining about their bad grammar! You can read about it here. If you want more grammar hints, you can visit this lovely clear site.