if you really want to drive yourself insane, learn the difference between further and farther, and then enjoy seeing people screw it up every single day.
Merriam-Webster says further is fine in basically any situation you could use farther, and farther is for physical distance only.
I feel like people around here mostly use further so it’s not really being “misused?” Never heard someone talking about farthering their goals, sounds very unnatural to my ear.
Killing the cop in your head includes editors. It’s one thing to correct for content and overall comprehensibility it’s another to get on this granular elements of style bullshit when the language is in common usage.
No difference except from people in the last hundred years trying to will a difference into existence. Farther is a quite bit more archaic here so you’d rarely hear or read it.
(also yes I know that saying less instead of fewer isn’t actually a “mistake” but my brain likes the distinction ok? let me have my comfort pedantic grammar rule)
I actually did see an example on Hexbear the other day where the fewer/less distinction did actually matter for getting the meaning across. Someone corrected it, which drew my attention to it.
Basically, if you’re saying “fewer [plural noun]” or “less [plural noun]”, even if the former should technically be a count noun and the latter a mass noun, it doesn’t impact intelligibility. But if there’s an intervening adjective, there can be ambiguity.
If you say “less competent people,” the most straightforward interpretation is “[less competent] people”, although with more flexible usage “less [competent people]” is also possible. If you say “fewer competent people” the only possible interpretation is “fewer [competent people].” Bit of an edge case, but it’s something I’m gonna file away in my noggin.
if you really want to drive yourself insane, learn the difference between further and farther, and then enjoy seeing people screw it up every single day.
Further more like fuhrer amirite?
Merriam-Webster says further is fine in basically any situation you could use farther, and farther is for physical distance only.
I feel like people around here mostly use further so it’s not really being “misused?” Never heard someone talking about farthering their goals, sounds very unnatural to my ear.
Sorry but an editor mentioned this to me when looking over my writing a few years ago and it’s lasered itself into my brain ever since.
Killing the cop in your head includes editors. It’s one thing to correct for content and overall comprehensibility it’s another to get on this granular elements of style bullshit when the language is in common usage.
“N-N-Nooo, you can’t just follow obscure grammatical rules that no one cares about!”
“Haha, it’s-farther-not-further machine go brrr.”
No difference except from people in the last hundred years trying to will a difference into existence. Farther is a quite bit more archaic here so you’d rarely hear or read it.
I guess I just lose either way, don’t I. I can’t please the hexbears and I can’t please this editor from my past either
It’s ok, buddy, I’m with you. Signed, someone with the same inner editor.
That’s me with fewer vs. less
Fewer more like fuhrer ohgoditneverends
(also yes I know that saying less instead of fewer isn’t actually a “mistake” but my brain likes the distinction ok? let me have my comfort pedantic grammar rule)
I actually did see an example on Hexbear the other day where the fewer/less distinction did actually matter for getting the meaning across. Someone corrected it, which drew my attention to it.
Basically, if you’re saying “fewer [plural noun]” or “less [plural noun]”, even if the former should technically be a count noun and the latter a mass noun, it doesn’t impact intelligibility. But if there’s an intervening adjective, there can be ambiguity.
If you say “less competent people,” the most straightforward interpretation is “[less competent] people”, although with more flexible usage “less [competent people]” is also possible. If you say “fewer competent people” the only possible interpretation is “fewer [competent people].” Bit of an edge case, but it’s something I’m gonna file away in my noggin.