Category Archives: Troublesome pairs

One of the biggies, here: fewer or less? Many people, including a good friend of mine, get absolutely incensed when these are used incorrectly (leading to the spectacle of several well-educated, intelligent ladies self-correcting nervously when they make a slip in front of her: she probably doesn’t warrant this fear any more than I warrant the fear people apparently have of making a typo in a response to this blog!)

Anyway, it’s quite simple …

Fewer is used for countables.  Less is used for mass nouns denoting things that can’t be counted – uncountables.

So – it should be “5 items or fewer” on that supermarket checkout sign.  Less coinage has been produced this year, but there are fewer coins.  Less hair has been cut off this time, but I have fewer grey hairs than he does.

The Concise Oxford English Dictionary is reassuringly stern on this one: “The use of less with a count noun (“less people”) is incorrect in standard English.”  That’s told you!

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

As with most of these pairs, this idea came from one of my readers: how to distinguish between relative and relation.  Well, basically, it’s a subtle one!

I looked these ones up in the Oxford Concise English dictionary. Relative is defined as “considered in relation or in proportion to something else”.

Relation is defined as the way in which two or more people or things are connected or related.

I see this as relative being about a comparison, and relation about a similarity.

So, you can say, “the relation between rain and snow is that they are both wet and cold; relative to snow, rain is wetter but less cold”.

As regards the other main meaning, a relative is a person connected to another by marriage or blood (I’d add or adoption or arrangement there to cover adoptions, step-families, etc.) and a relation is defined simply as “a relative”. Your sister is your relation, and also your relative.

Always nice to have some subtlety on a Monday …

You can find more troublesome pairs here.

I’m going through the replies to my original post asking for troublesome pairs people want me to explain.  I’ll try to cover them all in the fullness of time, so watch this space!

This feels like quite an obscure one, but I’ve been asked, so I’ll answer!

Your lineage is your ancestry or pedigree.

Linage is the number of written or printed lines.

In the spirit of trying to write at least one example that uses both of the words discussed in the post: “How much linage do you need to write out the Earl’s lineage?”

For more troublesome pairs, look at the category cloud to the right, or click here.

This is a bit of a funny one, to be honest, but someone asked me to do a post on it, and I do try to help!  So what is the difference between a customer and a client – or, indeed, is there one?

Again, thanks to my Oxford resources for helping me work this through – examples are my own.

According to the Concise Oxford English dictionary …

A “client” is a person who uses the services of a professional organisation or person.

A “customer” is a person who buys goods or services from a shop or business.

So, really, a customer buys things and a client buys services …  I suppose a good way to differentiate it is: a client is NOT someone who buys an apple from a greengrocer, and you could buy an accounting software package from an accountant as a customer, but most people would say you’d still be their client for their services (even though the dictionary suggests otherwise); if you were just buying the package, you’d be a customer of their re-selling arm.  As clear as mud?

Maybe we should just stick with: customers for goods; clients for services.  Using the dictionary selectively but not going against it. I call the people I work for clients, by the way.

And an added bonus: “clientele” is the collective set of clients!

For more troublesome pairs, have a look at the category cloud to your lower right, or click here!

I was asked to differentiate this one by a friend who sent me a lovely long list of troublesome pairs.  But this is a simple one: either will do!

“Spelt” is the past tense / past participle of “spell”.  So is “spelled”. Apparently, “spelt” is more usually found in British English.

So there you go!

For more troublesome pairs, click to the right in the category cloud or click here.

This is an easy one with an interesting explanation.

Would have is correct.

Would of is not correct.

However, “would of” has crept into the language because when “would have” is abbreviated to “would’ve”, and spoken out loud, it sounds like “would of”.

“She would have gone out, but she didn’t have anything to wear.”

“She would’ve gone out, but she didn’t have anything to wear.”

This works throughout the range of words – “might have”, “would have”, “should have”, etc.

For more troublesome pairs, choose the category from the cloud over to your right, or click here.