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what to use less or fewer, bit confused, help me out

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by naaga » Tue Oct 05, 2010 5:45 pm
Q: With a total population of less than two hundred and fewer breeding females than ever before, the American crocodile seemed a decade ago to be in danger of disappearing.
(A) of less than two hundred and fewer
(B) lower than two hundred and less
(C) lesser than two hundred and fewer
(D) fewer than two hundred and less
(E) of fewer than two hundred and of fewer


please explain the answer why ? thanks in advance friends
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by ashokkadam » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:19 pm
E looks good.

if we are dealing with subjects that can be counted, then 'fewer' is preferred.
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by mundasingh123 » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:29 pm
ashokkadam wrote:E looks good.

if we are dealing with subjects that can be counted, then 'fewer' is preferred.
i dont think E is right.It should be A becaus ei read ron's post about how the entire population should be taken as a continous entity.
what i am confused abt is when is lesser used
Last edited by mundasingh123 on Wed Oct 06, 2010 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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by pzazz12 » Wed Oct 06, 2010 4:45 am
I think answer is B.

what is OA?
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by naaga » Wed Oct 06, 2010 7:47 am
OA is A
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by Yanat » Wed Oct 06, 2010 8:25 am
I feel its A.

For uncountable we use less and for countable we use fewer.

Population is uncountable because we cannot say one population, two population, etc. But we can say one breeding female and two breeding females and so on and so forth.

So in my view, A is the correct answer.
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by rsvaishu » Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:46 pm
OA - A

less - used especially before uncountable nouns ex: money, water, population, etc.
fewer - used before plural nouns

less (population) - fewer (breeding females)
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by ramprakaashk » Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:58 pm
Can anyone please explain the difference in the usage of,

FEW and FEWER. I believe fewer is used for comparing things.
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by ramprakaashk » Sat Oct 16, 2010 9:59 pm
Can anyone please explain the difference in the usage of,

FEW and FEWER. I believe fewer is used for comparing things.
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by gmat_perfect » Sun Oct 17, 2010 7:58 am
naaga wrote:Q: With a total population of less than two hundred and fewer breeding females than ever before, the American crocodile seemed a decade ago to be in danger of disappearing.
(A) of less than two hundred and fewer
(B) lower than two hundred and less
(C) lesser than two hundred and fewer
(D) fewer than two hundred and less
(E) of fewer than two hundred and of fewer


please explain the answer why ? thanks in advance friends
Population is NON-COUNT.
Females is COUNT.

We need less to modify NON-COUNT NOUNS.
We need few to modify COUNT NOUN.

So, A is the only answer choice that has used both of these correctly.

There is almost such type of an SC in OG10.
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by Jim@Grockit » Sun Oct 17, 2010 8:07 pm
ramprakaashk wrote:Can anyone please explain the difference in the usage of,

FEW and FEWER. I believe fewer is used for comparing things.
Adjectives have three forms: positive ("good"), comparative ("better"), and superlative ("best"). Note that negative adjectives like "terrible" still have a positive form. The comparative forms of adjectives are commonly formed by adding -ER and appear in comparisons.
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by pesfunk » Sun Oct 17, 2010 9:26 pm
IMO A.

The explanation by Yanat is perfectly fine.
Yanat wrote:I feel its A.

For uncountable we use less and for countable we use fewer.

Population is uncountable because we cannot say one population, two population, etc. But we can say one breeding female and two breeding females and so on and so forth.

So in my view, A is the correct answer.
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by bvn » Mon Oct 18, 2010 2:24 am
gmat_perfect wrote:
naaga wrote:Q: With a total population of less than two hundred and fewer breeding females than ever before, the American crocodile seemed a decade ago to be in danger of disappearing.
(A) of less than two hundred and fewer
(B) lower than two hundred and less
(C) lesser than two hundred and fewer
(D) fewer than two hundred and less
(E) of fewer than two hundred and of fewer


please explain the answer why ? thanks in advance friends
Population is NON-COUNT.
Females is COUNT.

.
As I see in Longman Dictionary, Population is a countable noun, man. What do you think?

I think the matter here is comparable things. If you use "fewer", you need to compare the population now with population in the past, but that's not the meaning of this sentence. It's only compare the number of females.
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