Fewer salary/slaries

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Sat May 23 00:05:25 UTC 2009


At 5/22/2009 05:29 PM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>On May 22, 2009, at 1:26 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>Subject:      Re: Five times less
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>... I also have great difficulty with "two times
>>less"; I have to say "one-half as much"
>>
>>At least they don't say "two times fewer"!
>
>?? if you're counting objects, then sticklers on "less"/"fewer" would
>insist on "fewer".

Isn't "salary" a mass noun?  I don't count salary/salaries, I
accumulate it.  :-)   Am I supposed to say "I have (earn) fewer
salaries than he?"

Joel

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