It's been a while since I've been here, and I thank Patricia Feager for reminding me to get busy again!
I haven't nagged anyone about grammar for even longer than I've been
absent, so perhaps it’s time to start again.
While many people (even most) might not notice little errors, some people do.
Grammar is important, because for those who do notice, grammatical errors can act as giant stop signs in whatever point you were trying to make when writing on your website, in your blog, or in a message to a client or prospective client.
In addition, grammar errors can confuse your readers, making your words meaningless.
Some words make people stop and think "What's wrong here?" And that's how I came to write this post...
A few days ago, I read that there are “Less young people identifying as trans” in recent months. The sentence felt jarring to my grammatical sensibilities. It just seemed "wrong."
But since I don’t know everything, I decided to look it up. I found that this time, at least, I was right.
The sentence should have said “Fewer young people…”
Here’s the difference between "less" and "fewer" in grammar:
“Fewer” is used with countable nouns. For example: “fewer apples,” “fewer problems,” and yes – “fewer young people.”
“Less” is used when talking about uncountable nouns. For instance, “less water,” “less wind,” “less stress,” and “less time.”
Do you need help with grammar?
If you know you have trouble with the subtleties of grammar, consider purchasing your own copy of my e-book: A Grammar Guide for Real Estate Agents
A Grammar Guide for Real Estate Agents - Copy By Marte
The Grammar Guide for Real Estate Agents is written in simple non-academic terms, and includes both examples and tricks to help you remember which words to use.
You won’t need to learn the academic terms – but instead will learn to use words properly. And it can be fun.
For instance: Once you’ve mastered the use of apostrophes, you’ll probably start spotting signs that will make you laugh, simply because you’ll recognize that they make no sense!
They ARE silly, and in fact there are whole Facebook pages devoted to sharing that silliness, along with other grammar goofs. Here are a couple of them: (20+) Apostrophe Catastrophes | Facebook, and (20+) Bad Spelling or Grammar on signs and notices | Facebook
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