"Carranza ran for the seat in 2024 against Lujan and lost by less than 4 points."
Thank you for bringing us this story; however, I'd like to point out a grammatical error I see often in my position as an English professor. The simple rule for using "fewer" or "less" when speaking of measurements is that "fewer" is used for DIVISIBLE units, and "less" is used for INDIVISIBLE units. Examples:
less time, fewer hours
less distance, fewer miles
less space, fewer inches
less cutlery, fewer knives
less rain, fewer raindrops
As such, the phrase should be written as "lost by fewer than 4 points". A good rule of thumb is, if the noun can be multiplied by adding the suffix of "s," then you most probably should employ the term "fewer" (e.g., hours, miles, inches, knives, raindrops, points).
Keep up the good work with the reporting, and perhaps share this advice with your staff.
You're very welcome! Nobody can know everything. There is a saying attributed to Confucius to which I hold: "Everyone is ignorant, just in different subjects."
"Carranza ran for the seat in 2024 against Lujan and lost by less than 4 points."
Thank you for bringing us this story; however, I'd like to point out a grammatical error I see often in my position as an English professor. The simple rule for using "fewer" or "less" when speaking of measurements is that "fewer" is used for DIVISIBLE units, and "less" is used for INDIVISIBLE units. Examples:
less time, fewer hours
less distance, fewer miles
less space, fewer inches
less cutlery, fewer knives
less rain, fewer raindrops
As such, the phrase should be written as "lost by fewer than 4 points". A good rule of thumb is, if the noun can be multiplied by adding the suffix of "s," then you most probably should employ the term "fewer" (e.g., hours, miles, inches, knives, raindrops, points).
Keep up the good work with the reporting, and perhaps share this advice with your staff.
Thank you for the tip. Fixed it for our X post!
You're very welcome! Nobody can know everything. There is a saying attributed to Confucius to which I hold: "Everyone is ignorant, just in different subjects."