less ~ lesser ~ few
“Less” (adjective & pronoun) is the comparative form of the adjective ‘little’ — little – less/lesser – the least, which means ‘not so much in quantity; smaller in quantity’,
e.g.
He ate less food but drank more wine.
The teacher told the students to make less noise.
{Though ‘less’ is to be used with uncountable nouns and singular countable noun, it is some times used with plural countable nouns which some serious grammarians consider informal English.}
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“Lesser” (adjective) is also the comparative form of the adjective ‘little’, which means ‘not greater than or more than the other of the same kind’
e.g.
Which is the lesser evil of the two — smoking or drinking?
[‘Lesser’ should never be used with the conjunction ‘than’!]
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“Few” (adjective) — few – fewer – the fewest, means ‘a small number; not many’,
[“Few” should be used with countable plural nouns only.]
e.g.
He made a few mistakes in his essay.
There are fewer people present today than there were yesterday.
[There is an important point we all must know about the word “few”: “few” is used with the article ‘a’ in some sentences and without the article ‘a’ in some other sentences with difference in meaning: ‘A few’ gives us some positiveconnotation (sense); and ‘few’, without ‘a’, gives us a negative connotation (sense). For example, ‘a few schools’ = some schools, ‘a few people’ = some people, the number is more than expected (positive); but ‘few schools’ (without ‘a’) = almost no school, ‘few people’ = negligible number, almost no people at all (negative).]
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Author: B C Kumar
Mr. Kumar, an English language teacher, having taught in many countries around the world including Ethiopia and Oman shares this English Language Reference website using material that he has written and compiled during the past 20 years.
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