Fewer vs.
Less 
Quiz: For each sentence, choose the right word inside the parentheses.
1. There were (fewer, less) people at the
Star Trek convention this year.
2. That check-out lane is only for ten items or (less, fewer).
3. Drink more green tea and (less, fewer) coffee.
4. Just because their dog is old doesn't mean they should give him the (least, fewest) attention.
Well, the answers are obvious. As you may already know,
few and its comparative form
fewer are adjectives used to quantify
count nouns--people and things that you can specifically count using definite whole numbers (e.g., blanket, eggs, years, chrysanthemum, etc.).
Little and its comparative form
less are used to refer to
non-count or
mass nouns that can't be measured with whole numbers, like abstract concepts (honesty, pain, fear, noise, information) or things that can only be quantified using specific units of measure (water, oil, vinegar, rice, gasoline) or seen as a collective (furniture). Thus count nouns can be a dozen
eggs, 300 hunky Spartan
warriors,
or the top 20 safest
cities in America. Mass or non-count nouns are three cups of
coffee, a bottle of
vinegar, a bowl of
rice, nice
weather, much
love and
attention, pieces of
wood, and less
homework.
Singular vs.
Plural 
Count nouns have singular and plural forms (agency - agencies, alumnus - alumni, Cardassian - Cardassians, Borg - Borg).
Non-count or mass nouns are usually singular in form and in number (e.g., the
water is cold; add two dashes of
salt). Note that you don't necessarily say "waters" or "salts." They can be plural in form, too, but may change their meanings in the process. For example,
wood (construction material) and
woods (forest) are two different things; iced
coffee (the liquid substance you drink) vs. international coffees (which may refer to coffee beans or different coffee blends).
Then there are nouns that are ALWAYS plural in form and in number. (Whose
scissors are these? Hand me
those pliers, please. The
binoculars are on sale at Sears.) These are mostly count nouns, and I can't think of any mass nouns that are always plural (you can't say
rices or
grains of
salts).
Collective nouns can be a bit tricky. They refer to people or things that are viewed as a single entity or unit (i.e., team, family, crew, crowd) and can be singular or plural in form and in number (teams, families, crews, crowds). However, the subject-verb agreement varies regionally, depending on where you live. When I was growing up, it was taught that a singular collective noun took either a singular or plural present-tense verb depending on whether the unit functioned
individually or
as a whole.
Consider the following.
The
family is going on a road trip to Yosemite this summer.
The two
families are driving to Washington, DC, this autumn.
The
family are on holiday in Scotland for the summer.
All three sentences have correct subject-verb agreements, but I forget who (Canucks, Brits, Aussies) specifically use which form of the collective.
That reflects ignorance or just poor taste.
