“Irregardless”!!! ouch. I hate that one.
But back to the less/fewer thing: if you can count it, then use ‘fewer’; if it’s uncountable, use ‘less’.
“less butter, fewer guns” is the classic distinction people use to keep it straight.
And since this is the pit: I can’t stand those fuckin’ dimwit idiotic stupid no-nothing ignoramouses who don’t bother to learn they’re write grammer and spellin. Jerks.
That was just evel, Beepelbronx.
Les Paul, fewer guitars?
F_X
Agreed! Anti-semantic. Ban him at once. No, wait, flog him first.
Less Hitlers, fewer Fuerhers?
(Oh, God, what have I done! Wait, all I have to do is not hit the…AAAAAaaaarrrrgh!)
You been hangin’ out with Henry B? Just thought the cadence was familiar…
Anyone want to play the anagram game?
“Anti-Semantic”. Genius. That’s the funniest pun I’ve seen in weeks, elucidator.
Early Out, I hadn’t as yet had the pleasure of conversing with Henry B, so I didn’t get your reference. Then I did a search. Great googly moogly, that is some tortured syntax. However, as funny as sentences such as: “In the thread is very many statistical numbers.” are, I can’t make fun of the guy. English is his second language (his first is Finnish). He doesn’t live in an English speaking country, either, so I figure if I can understand him, he’s not doing too bad.
English seems to be hard enough for the people who grew up with it. Those are the people I’ll make fun of. 
Hah! We have a store that has all of the espress aisles labeled “X items or Less” but ONE. There is ONE “X Items or Fewer” line – an island of civilization in a sea of barbarianism. Guess which one I always stand in?
“Genius” may be a bit strong, but I am inclined to be forgiving.
While I’m about it, I want to offer props to accepting Hank B’s (rather charming) difficulties with English. People born in Finland often have difficulty learning thier native tongue, what with being clotted with umlauts and utterly unnatural fricatives. This alone may account for the high rate of depression among its citizens. Any of us who imagines he can learn Finnish with the skill that Hank has learned English is welcome to try.
It’s certainly true that Henry B’s English is better than my Finnish. In fact, it’s six times better. Or maybe seven times. Tough to say, since my knowledge of Finnish is limited to “Helsinki,” “Karelia,” and the fact that it’s in a weird language group, shared only by Hungarian, IIRC.
Of course, once you understand what Henry B is driving at, you realize that he’s also a loon! It ain’t just a language barrier. This board wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without our resident loonies - and I count a majority of the frequent posters in that category. And I’m not automatically excluding myself, though I’ll leave that determination to others.
[Off-topic]
I’m always astonished at how many ordinary people in the street in other countries speak at least passable English, even in places we would consider isolated (like Baghdad!). English must be a bitch to learn as a second or third language, yet learn it, they do.
[/Off-topic]
less mess, fewer sewers?
OR, if you’re out in the country:
less mess, fewer moo’ers?
Fewer Miserables :dubious: