Common English Blunders

“Ten items or less”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler

I was reminded of this common English blunder while reviewing a course for employees.

Problem:
The word “less” is inappropriate here.

Explanation:
“Less failed orders due to increased system checks” was given as a benefit of a software application used by sales agents handling inbound orders from customers.

This reminded me of the common English blunder “Ten items or less” that is often seen in checkout lines at grocery stores and other retailers.

The primary definition of the adjective “less” is to a smaller degree or extent In contrast, the adjective “fewer” means of a smaller number.

So, the adjective “less” is incorrect in “Less failed orders” and in “Ten items or less”.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “items or fewer” — 41,600 matches
  • “items or less” — 2,450,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the incorrect “items or less” versus the correct “items or fewer” by a ratio of 58.9-to-1, which is absolutely dreadful.

I believe that the preference for “less” over “fewer” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to say or write the four-letter, one-syllable “less” than it is to say or write the five-letter, two-syllable “fewer”.

Some stores still get it right, fortunately.

Solution:
“Ten items or fewer”

“Free Gift”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Nouns, Redundancies

I see and hear this phrase a lot.

Problem:
The adjective creates a redundancy.

Explanation:
The noun “gift” in this phrase means a thing or experience voluntarily given without any kind of reciprocal payment required or expected.

So the adjective “free” creates a redundancy when combined with the noun “gift”.

For fun, I searched Google for “free gift” (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about 9,110,000 matches.

Not all of these matches were what I was seeking. For example, Google returned “Free Gift-Giving Labels”, but this does not agree with the sense of the phrase “Free Gift”.

However, I am sure that many millions of the returned matches did agree with the sense of the phrase, which obviously makes this phrase a common English blunder.

Solution:
“Gift”

“Chance that someday you will forget …”

Adjectives, Adverbs, Common English Blunders

I saw this in a television advertisement two days ago.

Problem:
“Someday” is an adjective, but an adverb is required here.

Explanation:
The verbiage displayed in the FedEx TV ad was along the lines of “Chance that someday you will forget to hit mute”, with no space between “some” and “day”.

“Someday” — without the space — tells you what.

For example, a “someday occurrence” is something that occurs at an indefinite future time.

In other words, “someday” is an adjective; it modifies a noun (such as “occurrence”).

In contrast, “some day” tells you when.

An example of the correct use of “some day” is “It will happen some day.”

The goal of the television advertising copywriter was to tell the viewer when he or she would forget.

Solution:
“Chance that some day you will forget …”