Fewer or less — Synonyms & Antonyms Aptitude Question
Fewer or less: Choose the correct sentence: Answer and worked solution on CodeKairo.
- Topic: Synonyms & Antonyms
- Section: Verbal Ability
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time target: 50 seconds
Question
Choose the correct sentence:
Options
- There were less people than expected.
- There were fewer people than expected.
- I have less books than you.
- She has fewer patience than her sister.
Show the answer and the worked solution
Correct answer: B. There were fewer people than expected.
Worked solution
- Fewer goes with countable nouns, less with uncountable ones.
- People are countable, so 'fewer people' is correct.
- 'Less patience' would be right, since patience is uncountable.
Answer: There were fewer people than expected.
The idea
Ask whether you could put a number in front of the noun. If you could, use fewer; if not, use less.
Shortcut. People and books can be counted, patience cannot — so fewer people, fewer books, less patience; only one option pairs them correctly.
Common trap. "There were less people than expected." — everyday speech uses less here, but people are countable and take fewer.