More apples or less apples? (Grammatical Error in Heading in Year 1 homework)

[lingle]

DS2 has got numeracy homework to complete. The title at the top of the page is "More Apples or Less Apples".

Do I:

• stick a note on asking the teachers to feed back to the resource provider that there is a grammatical error? (They could head it "More or Less" to avoid the mistake. Later, the text uses correct language "is it more than the number on the tree or less than the number on the tree?")
• do nothing because it is a numeracy exercise not a literacy exercise?
• do nothing because Tesco stores now say "less+plural countable noun" on their advertising signs so perhaps the usage as moved on? I've also seen advertisements on TV saying things like "less emissions"

As StealthPolarBear makes clear, 'less' is used for uncountable plural and mass nouns, such as for example 'less sugar', 'less sand', or ?less noise?. 'Few´ and fewer' are used for plural count nouns, such as, ?few apples? and/or 'fewer apples', ?fewer people?, etc.
It is possible to hear BBC news staff using these terms incorrectly and some people don?t care one way or the other but, if you want children to be able to write standard English ? and they?ll need to be able to do that ?, teachers of English and literacy should be teaching it this stuff correctly.
Btw, foreign learners of English as a foreign language learn this stuff as a matter of course and don't have any trouble with it.

Well, cheese isn't uncountable or mass, but I can still have less cheese.

If I cut the chair I'm sitting on in half i'd have less chair. if I burnt one that's currently at my dining table, i'd have fewer chairs.

not sure what the point of that is. this is all interesting

That's right, because chair is singular you have less of a singular thing and fewer of multiple things.

ROFL at some of the replies.

I can totally see that it would be a bad idea to introduce the word "fewer" here. It's just a pity that the designers of the resources couldn't have avoided the incorrect use of "less". After all, DH and I will not be the only ones who didn't look at the numeracy aspect of it this morning because we were too distracted debating the grammar mistake.

I don't particularly like the big supermarkets and it is their "9 items or less" signs that have driven the loss of "fewer" so perhaps my irritation is really just a displaced anti-Tesco venom.

I am going to follow the sage advice of achickencalledkorma, assume that the teacher himself would have known better but didn't have time to do anything before the photocopies were made, and was too busy meeting the children's other needs to correct it. I might also have a bonding whinge with another parent outside the school gate.

I also wonder whether the use of "less" here interferes with communication in any way. I suspect it doesn't. I shall therefore relegate it to the "never mind" pile. Unlike "disinterested" which I am still trying to save so that we can talk about the need for disinterested judges, etc.

What to do though? Maybe just correct the worksheet when it goes back or leave it.

Its printed on the worksheet so its not the teacher's fault, she could do a littel quiz with the children 'Who can spot the mistake?' or maybe she has already pointed it out?

I think the meaning of the word less has evolved - the '9 items or less' being the best example. It had never occured to me that that sounded wrong but 'less apples' does sound wrong. As such I wouldnt actually view it as a mistake, just as a difference in language.

For example many of my friends say 'i will be with you momentarily'. To an English person (which I am, as are my friends) this means 'i will be with you for a moment, then I will leave again', to an American this means 'I will be with in a moment' and this is the way they are using it. They are not using it incorrectly, just in a different way to the way we are used to hearing.

I also agree with the poster who commented that it is used in this way in maths. Could a number be seen as a singular? A single entity? It makes sense to me to say 'is this less than 9?' I think it is this use that confuses the issue and makes the word evolve.

I think you grammar is most influenced by the way you speak and the generation difference between you and your children will always bring up difference. Yes standard English is important but the fact less is used in this way so regularly suggests to me it has become standardised.

Oh also, if you tell the teacher that a numeracy worksheet has a (debatable) grammatical error he/she will pretend to care and then never give it a second thought.

Tbh I would spend the time making sure your child understands the concepts of less and more rather than worrying about what to write on a note to the teacher.

In Year 1 numeracy the teacher will use the phrases less, fewer, smaller than, lower, take away, subtract, count backwards, before, etc.

This is to help the children understand, in very basic terms, that there are many different ways to indicate the relationship between one number (or digit) and another.

Sorry, just realised this is nothing to do with what you asked OP

no it's helpful fairenuff.

I've noticed with dS1's year 4 homework that they use as many different kinds of vocabulary as possible - interesting! I suppose it's to try to give the children breadth/independence?

so I suppose it's an earlier version of that.

Part of DD's homework this week was to write the mpg of our car. Except it asked for it in "galleons per mile". I so wanted to draw little pictures of 15thC spanish warships and find out how long they usually were ... Oh, and another question was about eating meat and diary products. I find page-per-week ones tastiest. Dd ignored the maternal eye-rolling and muttering, and got on with her homework .

galleons per mile and diary products?

I want to go live in that world, just for one day.

All the teachers I know in KS1 know that 'fewer' is correct but 'less' is used for consistency, especially when using abstract numbers.

I Did correct my son's teachers's use of 'comprises of'. Oops!

well kitkat, that's an almost overwhelming temptation for the best of us so I'm not surprised you gave in....