I've decided I'm going to have to learn to be less of a pedant. I'm reading a fascinating book called "The story of English in 100 words" by David Crystal, and he's been documenting the history of "disinterested" and "uninterested". Both first appeared in the 17th century, at which time "disinterested" meant "indifferent" and "uninterested" meant "impartial". A century later the meanings had swapped over, mostly... Dr Johnson's dictionary tried to separate them so that their meanings were established as we understand them today - but they continued to be used interchangeably, except by pedants like me...
I think I'll drop them both and use "indifferent" and "impartial" instead.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Less and fewer are not interchangeable! Fewer is used for things you can count. Less is used for a smaller lump. E.g. There are fewer baked beans on my plate than yours. However, you have less mashed potato.
Agree, SYinUSA. Several phrases in common use in the USA do make me cringe, especially when they are included in novels set in the UK. One is ‘to write someone’ rather than ‘write to someone’. I’ve assumed that ‘ is all’ is an alternative to ‘that’s all’?
Posts
I think I'll drop them both and use "indifferent" and "impartial" instead.
Fewer is used for things you can count. Less is used for a smaller lump.
E.g. There are fewer baked beans on my plate than yours. However, you have less mashed potato.