Why is it ....

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Mad Scientist
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#1266248 23-Mar-2015 21:11

A lot refers to things you can't count. A lot of water. Not people. Many people.

Less refers to things you can't count. Less water. Not people. Fewer people.

Gosh!

jpoc

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#1266253 23-Mar-2015 21:17

mattwnz: That is fine if this was a form of formal communication, but this is informal and people type quickly. Also you get tablets autocorrecting etc. I see more errors of those types of grammatical and spelling errors in the newspaper these days. One that gets to me though, is 'their' and 'there' , as many people don't know the difference.

Would anyone care to suggest the correct wording to use for the phrase in bold?

How many mistakes are there?

MikeB4

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#1266260 23-Mar-2015 21:18

I often make mistakes, I guess when it hurts to type one will make errors. I am also someone who does not care when I read something on a Forum that may have spelling or Grammer errors.

timmmay

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#1266267 23-Mar-2015 21:23

Bah humbug, get of my lawn.

linw

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#1266268 23-Mar-2015 21:24

And then there are the people here who defiantly use defiantly instead of definitely.

1eStar

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#1266269 23-Mar-2015 21:24

Too many loosers.

jpoc

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#1266287 23-Mar-2015 21:47

joker97: A lot refers to things you can't count. A lot of water. Not people. Many people.

Less refers to things you can't count. Less water. Not people. Fewer people.

Gosh!

My grammar sources suggest that "a lot of" and "many" are both valid in the case of things that you can count.

Sometimes, they can convey slightly different meanings - especially in the negative.

The person who says "I have not seen a lot of movies this year" may very well have seen more movies than the person who says "I have not seen many movies this year".

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DarthKermit

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#1266292 23-Mar-2015 21:51

I haven't seen alot of movies this year.

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Glassboy

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#1266299 23-Mar-2015 22:00

DarthKermit: I haven't seen alot of movies this year.

Don't be hijacking my complaint thread into being one of those damn threads where people talk about their terrible taste in any and all forms of entertainment.

Batman

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#1266300 23-Mar-2015 22:02

jpoc:
joker97: A lot refers to things you can't count. A lot of water. Not people. Many people.

Less refers to things you can't count. Less water. Not people. Fewer people.

Gosh!

My grammar sources suggest that "a lot of" and "many" are both valid in the case of things that you can count.

Sometimes, they can convey slightly different meanings - especially in the negative.

The person who says "I have not seen a lot of movies this year" may very well have seen more movies than the person who says "I have not seen many movies this year".

ok my bad ...

DarthKermit

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#1266302 23-Mar-2015 22:12

Rappelle:
DarthKermit: I haven't seen alot of movies this year.

I hope you're not bolding it to imply it's correct..

No. I know that "a lot" is the correct spelling. Alot of people, er, many people don't seem to know, nowdays.

One that really gets to me is people confusing the homophones "aloud" with "allowed."

Another one that I remember seeing on that bastion of all things quality (Stuff.co.nz), was a sentence that read something like "firefighters prized open the door" which should have been "firefighters prised open the door."

Whatifthespacekeyhadneverbeeninvented?

Glassboy

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#1266304 23-Mar-2015 22:21

DarthKermit:

Another one that I remember seeing on that bastion of all things quality (Stuff.co.nz), was a sentence that read something like "firefighters prized open the door" which should have been "firefighters prised open the door."

When you teach people to "sound aloud" price/prise/prize are very hard to separate. (And Yacht is just baffling.)

JWR

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#1266354 24-Mar-2015 01:21

freitasm:

Inphinity: People make mistakes, for some of it. Unfortunately, there's also a lot of people who just don't know the difference, and consistently misuse words. Just because they've registered on GZ does not make them magically brighter than the general population - though one would imagine the average may skew higher in more closed groups such as this.

People make mistakes sure. But some aren't mistakes, are errors. For example someone who should know better (degree in communications, working in marketing) sent me an email asking to replace "your" with "you're" in a couple of sentences. I replied asking "Where?" and he said "on this page I linked"... I replied "Yes, but which one you want replaced?"

Basically there were four "your" and all correctly used. He wanted all replaced with "you're". I made him aware of the error of his ways.

Should have just replaced all instances with 'UR'!

linw

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#1266402 24-Mar-2015 08:19

joker97: A lot refers to things you can't count. A lot of water. Not people. Many people.

Less refers to things you can't count. Less water. Not people. Fewer people.

Gosh!

One of my bugbears, also, is this misuse of words like less/fewer, amount/number of. There should be a distinction between continuous and discrete objects. All the more galling when it comes from broadcasters whose main tool is the English language.

/ slips off high horse!!!

MikeB4

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#1266406 24-Mar-2015 08:28

Not directed at anyone but these types of threads no matter where they are always remind me of the lyrics of a certain song....

"Oh Lord it's hard to be humble
when you're perfect in every way."

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