Which sentence correctly distinguishes between 'fewer' (for countable nouns) and 'less' (for uncountable mass nouns)?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. The regional clinic treated fewer patients during the winter flu season than anticipated.
- Step 1: 'Fewer' is used with plural countable nouns (patients, cars, books).
- Step 2: 'Less' is used with singular uncountable mass quantities (fuel, water, time).
- Step 3: Since 'patients' are individual countable people, 'fewer patients' is grammatically correct.
Answer
The regional clinic treated fewer patients during the winter flu season than anticipated.
Why not the others: '...fewer fuel' is incorrect because 'fuel' is an uncountable noun requiring 'less fuel'; '...less participants' errs because 'participants' is countable, requiring 'fewer participants'; '...fewer water' errs because 'water' is an uncountable liquid requiring 'less water'.
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