Count/Non-count Nouns HELP needed

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amir_hatef: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 38; Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:28 pm; Thanked: 1 times

by amir_hatef » Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:56 am

With less than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and fewer acceptances by guestspeakers than expected, the one-day symposium on art and religion was canceled for lack of interest.

A. less than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and fewer
B. fewer than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and less
C. fewer than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and fewer
D. lesser than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and fewer
E. less than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and as few

Source: Princeton Review OA: A
Could any tutor,Ron or Sarai or ...kindly clarify these ''less'' and ''few'' issues in details for me?
Thanks a lot.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Tue Oct 05, 2010 11:56 am

shovan85: Community Manager; Posts: 991; Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:19 amFollowed by: 24 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 146 times

by shovan85 » Tue Oct 05, 2010 12:22 pm

Here, the use of "FEW" is not feasible as it is a comparative to a number (30000 here). When you compare with a number you have to use LESS.

In this context a number of sales in term of money is used. If you think in terms of Money (whose unit is dollar) then you will use Less. This time sales is less than 30000 dollars not sales is fewer than 3000 dollars. You can follow the below link which has an expert reply.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/quantity-words-t58267.html

Hope this helps

amir_hatef wrote:With less than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and fewer acceptances by guestspeakers than expected, the one-day symposium on art and religion was canceled for lack of interest.

A. less than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and fewer
B. fewer than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and less
C. fewer than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and fewer
D. lesser than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and fewer
E. less than thirty thousand dollars in advance ticket sales and as few

Source: Princeton Review OA: A
Could any tutor,Ron or Sarai or ...kindly clarify these ''less'' and ''few'' issues in details for me?
Thanks a lot.

Like this post

clock60: Legendary Member; Posts: 759; Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:15 amFollowed by: 3 members; Thanked: 85 times

by clock60 » Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:13 pm

hi guys
i solved this one wrong, picked D
can somebody explain why we use less here instead of lesser?what is the difference?

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shovan85: Community Manager; Posts: 991; Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:19 amFollowed by: 24 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 146 times

by shovan85 » Tue Oct 05, 2010 8:29 pm

clock60 wrote:hi guys
i solved this one wrong, picked D
can somebody explain why we use less here instead of lesser?what is the difference?

Lesser is wrong we cannot use the Comparative Form of Less here. If you see the second part (after and)in the sentence it is "and fewer acceptances" this is correct as the number of acceptance is not compared with any other number, where as first part of the sentence already compares the sales and usage of THAN makes Lesser incorrect.

The sales this year is lesser than 30000 dollars.
The sales this year is less than 3000 dollars.

Second one is more Concise and Correct.

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Ramneet Singh: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 68; Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 11:24 amFollowed by: 1 member

by Ramneet Singh » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:54 pm

shovan85 wrote:
clock60 wrote:hi guys
i solved this one wrong, picked D
can somebody explain why we use less here instead of lesser?what is the difference?
Lesser is wrong we cannot use the Comparative Form of Less here. If you see the second part (after and)in the sentence it is "and fewer acceptances" this is correct as the number of acceptance is not compared with any other number, where as first part of the sentence already compares the sales and usage of THAN makes Lesser incorrect.

The sales this year is lesser than 30000 dollars.
The sales this year is less than 3000 dollars.

Second one is more Concise and Correct.

the sales this year is less than expected.
is it wrong?

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shovan85: Community Manager; Posts: 991; Joined: Thu Sep 23, 2010 6:19 amFollowed by: 24 members; Location: Bangalore, India; Thanked: 146 times

by shovan85 » Wed Oct 06, 2010 1:05 am

Ramneet Singh wrote:
shovan85 wrote:
clock60 wrote:hi guys
i solved this one wrong, picked D
can somebody explain why we use less here instead of lesser?what is the difference?
Lesser is wrong we cannot use the Comparative Form of Less here. If you see the second part (after and)in the sentence it is "and fewer acceptances" this is correct as the number of acceptance is not compared with any other number, where as first part of the sentence already compares the sales and usage of THAN makes Lesser incorrect.

The sales this year is lesser than 30000 dollars.
The sales this year is less than 3000 dollars.

Second one is more Concise and Correct.
the sales this year is less than expected.
is it wrong?

The usage of Less than here is correct.

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