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less vs lower

by satishchandra » Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:58 pm
Even though the direct costs of malpractice disputes amounts to a sum lower than one percent of the $541 billion the nation spent on health care last year, doctors say fear of lawsuits plays major role in health-care inflation.

(A) amounts to a sum lower
(B) amounts to less
(C) amounted to less
(D) amounted to lower
(E) amounted to a lower sum
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by avik.ch » Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:05 am
since costs is prural here : "amounts" - we can eliminate A and B.

less : it can act as an adjective,adverb and as a noun
lower : always act as an adjective

to + noun ( object of a preposition "to") - D is wrong as we need a noun and not an adjective.

Amounts and sum are redundant : this is another reason to eliminate A and this eliminate E.

Moreover The major problem in E - "lower sum than one percent": it seems that "sums" are being comapared to percent.

We are left with C.

Hope this helps !!
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by satishchandra » Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:04 pm
Thanks avik for your efforts in explaining.
My basic doubt, which infact pushed me, to post this SC is:

1. direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to lower than one percent of the $541 billion (Incorrect)
2. direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to FEWER than one percent of the $541 billion (Incorrect/correct)
3. direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to LESS than one percent of the $541 billion(correct)

I know that first and second comparatives are correct for COUNTABLE NOUN, and the third one is correct for UNCOUNTABLE NOUN.


direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted (Must be some number, could be 0.005*(541 billion)
one percent of the $541 billion (should again be a number 0.01*(541 billion)

As said above, if actual numbers are involved, why the usage of lower/fewer is incorrect?

I know the word 'money' is an uncountable noun
However, dollars are a countable noun.
I suppose we have money in dollars, which, i thought, should be a countable noun.
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by ArunangsuSahu » Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:47 am
costs in terms of money is uncountable and less/more than x% is right

(C)
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by avik.ch » Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:08 pm
satishchandra wrote:Thanks avik for your efforts in explaining.
My basic doubt, which infact pushed me, to post this SC is:

1. direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to lower than one percent of the $541 billion (Incorrect)
2. direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to FEWER than one percent of the $541 billion (Incorrect/correct)
3. direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to LESS than one percent of the $541 billion(correct)

I know that first and second comparatives are correct for COUNTABLE NOUN, and the third one is correct for UNCOUNTABLE NOUN.
Like "lower", " fewer " is also an adjective.

So your second sentence is wrong - its not about countable and uncountable noun. The concept of countable and uncountable noun comes when you are using "less" as an adjective. In the above example you need a noun as an object of a preposition.

satishchandra wrote:direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted (Must be some number, could be 0.005*(541 billion)
one percent of the $541 billion (should again be a number 0.01*(541 billion).
direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to X.
direct costs of malpractice disputes amounted to less than X ( less than X is a noun phrase - object of a preposition)
satishchandra wrote:As said above, if actual numbers are involved, why the usage of lower/fewer is incorrect?

I know the word 'money' is an uncountable noun
However, dollars are a countable noun.
I suppose we have money in dollars, which, i thought, should be a countable noun.
For more explanation, please refer the below link :

https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/pos ... tml#p26913
https://www.beatthegmat.com/lesser-vs-lo ... 82181.html
https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/les ... t4880.html
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by lunarpower » Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:57 am
satishchandra wrote:I know the word 'money' is an uncountable noun
However, dollars are a countable noun.
I suppose we have money in dollars, which, i thought, should be a countable noun.
when you have NUMBER + UNIT OF MEASURE (dollars, gallons, feet, miles, square meters, etc.), then you use "less", not "fewer".
you should probably just know this, but the justification is the idea that "fewer" is used for separate things that you can literally count one by one, and that can thus only be present in whole numbers.
units of measure don't satisfy these conditions. for instance, if i am six feet tall, that's not six separable objects that you can count one by one. also, if i have twenty dollars in my wallet, that's almost certainly not twenty individual dollar bills.
so, you would write:
i am less than six feet tall
but
a cat has fewer than six feet (= feet on the ends of its legs -- these are countable. a cat has four of these, so, fewer than six.)
you would also write
i have less than $20 in my wallet
but
i have fewer than twenty quarters in my wallet (because quarters are separable objects that you can literally count one at a time).

i think it's unlikely that the current GMAT will test this difference, but there it is.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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