Sentence Correction

Because natural gas is composed mostly of methane, a simple hydrocarbon, vehicles powered by natural gas emit less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel.
(A) less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel
(B) fewer of certain pollutants than burning gasoline or diesel fuel do
(C) less of certain pollutants than gasoline or diesel fuel
(D) fewer of certain pollutants than does burning gasoline or diesel fuel
(E) less of certain pollutants than those burning gasoline or diesel fuel

hmboy17 wrote:Because natural gas is composed mostly of methane, a simple hydrocarbon, vehicles powered by natural gas emit less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel.
(A) less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel
(B) fewer of certain pollutants than burning gasoline or diesel fuel do
(C) less of certain pollutants than gasoline or diesel fuel
(D) fewer of certain pollutants than does burning gasoline or diesel fuel
(E) less of certain pollutants than those burning gasoline or diesel fuel

IMO A.

FEWER is wrong - B and D are out.

LESS ..... THAN - the verbs after LESS and THAN should be parallel. C and E are out.

OA?

Answer is E. But I could not understand why did you rule out FEWER as pollutants are contable so I think fewer should be used. So could you please explain that?

I don't think pollution is countable.

I don't know how E is correct. IMO, its unidiomatic.

Pollution is not countable but I was referring pollutants which i guess is countable.

Any suggestion from others

IMO E

Since we cannot say how many pollutants (as in a definite number) we need to use less rather than fewer.

So B and D are out


A and C are out because we are talking about vehicles that use methane and only E compares vehicles to vehicles.

I still feel it's D.
Could some one give me a more better explanation?

If the object that we are referring to makes sense if prefixed with a number then use fewer, else use lesser...

Eg) 1 cap, 2 caps....makes sense...hence in this case we will be using fewer rather than lesser.
'Tom has fewer caps than shirts.'

Eg) 1 pollutant, 2 pollutant...does not make sense...hence use lesser rather than fewer.

Therefore,
Because natural gas is composed mostly of methane, a simple hydrocarbon, vehicles powered by natural gas emit less of certain pollutants than those burning gasoline or diesel fuel

types of pollutants are countable (ie: water pollutants, air pollutants...) but pollutants of a certain type is uncountable.

the only analogy I can think of is water; types of water can be countable, such as colored water, cold water, hot water... but water in general (of a same type) is uncountable.

also, E is correct because it correctly parallels "vehicles powered by..." to "those (vehicles) burning".

One thing that I have noticed is once you give OA then guys here will make sure they will provide some explanation to match the OA. But before OA you will see all kind of answer. I request the expert to explain this question as I could not under stand the fact that we need LESS not FEWER

Because natural gas is composed mostly of methane, a simple hydrocarbon, vehicles powered by natural gas emit less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel.
(A) less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel
(B) fewer of certain pollutants than burning gasoline or diesel fuel do
(C) less of certain pollutants than gasoline or diesel fuel
(D) fewer of certain pollutants than does burning gasoline or diesel fuel
(E) less of certain pollutants than those burning gasoline or diesel fuel

B, D is incorrect. Pollution is not countable, thus less must be used.

A, C is incorrect. Those must be used to refere back to vehicles that's powered by gasoline or diesel.

I think it should be D.

Fewer of 'certain' this word certain implies that a countable number of pollutants is being talked about.

hmboy17 wrote:One thing that I have noticed is once you give OA then guys here will make sure they will provide some explanation to match the OA. But before OA you will see all kind of answer. I request the expert to explain this question as I could not under stand the fact that we need LESS not FEWER

Even if you are not sure to use less or fewer here look at the clause "vehicles powered by natural gas emit less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel." Since other clause starts with Because and hence we need the one with "Vehi..." to be independent clause. "vehi.." alone does not make sense in any options except E. We need "those" or some other pronoun that can refer (make a copy ) of vehichles, withouht those "burning of gasoline or diesel fuel" is a dangling modifier.

Vinayak

Less of certain pollutants .
I think the number of pollutants is fixed here for both burning natural gas and diesel. It is the amount of these certain pollutants that is being compared and is not countable.
Lets say certain pollutants is replaced by CO, C2F2.
The sentance is now "Vehicles emit less of CO, C2F2" and it is wrong to say "Vehicles emit fewer of CO, C2F2".
If the sentence was "Vehicles emit fewer pollutants" then its correct, which means the vehicles probably do not emit CO at all. But because the comparision is about the amount of certain pollutants and not actually how many different pollutants we have to use less.

hmboy17 wrote:One thing that I have noticed is once you give OA then guys here will make sure they will provide some explanation to match the OA. But before OA you will see all kind of answer. I request the expert to explain this question as I could not under stand the fact that we need LESS not FEWER

Because natural gas is composed mostly of methane, a simple hydrocarbon, vehicles powered by natural gas emit less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel.
(A) less of certain pollutants than the burning of gasoline or diesel fuel
(B) fewer of certain pollutants than burning gasoline or diesel fuel do
(C) less of certain pollutants than gasoline or diesel fuel
(D) fewer of certain pollutants than does burning gasoline or diesel fuel
(E) less of certain pollutants than those burning gasoline or diesel fuel

Hi, I selected E based on the comparison. The intent of the sentence is to compare vehicles that are powered by natural gas to vehicles that burn gasoline or disel fuel. Thereforem E is the only choice that sets up the parallel by using "those".