Fellow pedants, gather round and share a very, very special growing-up moment in the Inferiority Complex

[motherinferior]

I explained apostrophes to DD1 today.

It was a special, precious moment (in the car, of course, as these moments tend to be). I shall remember it always.

Aww sweet.

. well done.

hmm I'm sure I've heard you tell that story before MI

me too

lovely to see/meet you both today btw.

we had amazingly smooth journey home....one of those when you get to platforms/bustops and the right train/bus is just arriving! bliss.

I am in awe of your command of public transport

I drove halfway round SouthEastBloodyLondon, dammit.

I told you I'd have to share here, you two

oooh! oooh! I did that in the car the other day too!

But it was to my 9 yr old who should, frankly, now it by now. But still!

We have a common bond, MI. I treasure that.

know

MI, you must be very proud. You know there will come a time, when she's older, that you'll have to explain semi-colons to her. Almost as difficult as explaining about Where Babies Come From, I should imagine.

That's lovely, MI.

Another pedant is born!

DS2 and I are very Fond Of Apostrophes. DS1 (his father's son) is less bothered.

May I recommend The Great Grammar Book, which is a fantastic pop up book that goes into great detail about colons, semi-colons, apostrophes ("Never ever with a possessive pronoun!"), ellipses and so forth? Top reading for the pedantically inclined 5 year old.

ds pointed out an incorrect apostrophe at the greengrocer's lately.

Aloha, that is a real pedant's coming-of-age, and you should be mightily proud!

my ds (aged 5) pointed out a grocer's apostophe (in an actual greengrocer's ) and a spelling mistake (tomato's)

Does he get an honourable mention too?

(He also made his teacher's day when he explained to the rest of his reception class about alliteration)
(Particularly proud pedantic parenting moment )

I took ds2 to a performance of "The Elves and the Shoemaker" at Carmarthen's Lyric Theatre (no, you probably haven't heard of it, I know) last week and almost, almost heckled the leading man when he came out with a line about "I have even less customers than I used to have..."

How sad would I have looked if I'd given in to my impulse and shouted "fewer"?

Yes, FMV, your son should definitely be admitted to the Hall of Fame!

Ah a boasting thread! Marvellous. My ds knows what a homophone is (or did last week, can't be sure about this week).

I know what you mean about the urge McMartha! It's almost overwhelming isn't it. Dh and I share our happiest moments bellowing 'FEWER!' at the television.

dd1 takes pleasure in correcting people's dropped ts and hs at school. She actually did ask one of her class mates ' are you from chavland?' the other week which was slightly embarrassing.

Ha, Aloha...also last week we did pond dipping at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales and the woman said something about "less tadpoles". Dh and I did a sideways, raised eyebrows glance at each other and we each knew exactly what the other was thinking It keeps us happy.

please explain the less/fewer rule for thicko here

Fewer is for nouns that are multiples - so fewer peas, fewer customers, fewer items (in the 10 items or less queue in Tesco )

Less is for singular - so less sand, less money etc.

It's often nouns with an s on the end which you use fewer for but not always - ie., fewer men, not less men.

I'm now on the board of governors at the DSs' school and I have to bite my lip every time the headteacher says "between you and I", or "he said to Jenny and I".

Oh, and have posted before on DS2's fondness for pointing out other people's glottal stops - pretty embarrassing when we were camping in France...

DrMoo, the technical term is 'count' and 'non-count' nouns (in EFL speak, anyway). If you can count it, at least theoretically (bicycles, apples, planets, stars, books, trees, viruses) then you need 'fewer'. If you can't count it (sugar, milk, mud, paint) then you need 'less'.