Countable Vs Uncountable

ansh.kumar wrote:THANKS FOR THE EXPLANATION,
ONE MORE QUERY
"DO WE ALWAYS USE LESS WITH PERCENTS AND FRACTIONS ?

GMATGuruNY wrote:

asp_2010 wrote:Hi,
someone pls explain the below one:

1) Although the government’s expenditures on law suits involving tobacco companies amounts to a sum dramatically lower than that spent by tobacco companies, many believe that the government should allocate no more funds to a battle they perceive as pointless.
a) expenditure on law suits involving tobacco companies amounts to a sum dramatically lower than
b) expenditures on law suits involving tobacco companies amount to a sum dramatically less than
c) expenditures on law suits involving tobacco companies amount to a sum dramatically lower than
d) law suit expenditures regarding tobacco companies amount to a dramatically lower sum than
e) law suit expenditures against tobacco companies amounts to a sum dramatically lower than

The dilemma is between B and C. I thought "sum" is uncountable just like "amount" or "money" and hence preferred "less than" rather than "lower than". Pls correct me if wrong.

Quickest approach:

In A, expenditure should be plural in order to match the plural law suits. Eliminate A.

The correct idiom is expenditure on. Eliminate D and E.

In B, less is incorrect. We can't have a less sum; we can have only a lower sum. Eliminate B.

The correct answer is C.

Here's the take-away:

Less is used to refer to something that is not countable:

John has less ice cream than Mary has.

But we can't say John has a less amount of ice cream. Words such as amount, sum, and total require an -er word. We need to say:

John has a smaller amount of ice cream than Mary has.

Hope this helps!