# Editing and Writing

Confused about when to use less or fewer?

There’s a rule in English that we treat countable nouns and uncountable nouns differently. This comes into play for fewer and less.

If we’re talking about countable nouns – things you can count – we use fewer:

- ten items or fewer (we can count the items)
- fewer animals
- fewer people
- fewer tax increases
- fewer sunshine hours.

If we’re talking about uncountable nouns – things that you can’t count, or you’d usually measure – we use less:

- less milk
- less rain
- less climate change
- less pain
- less sunshine.

So for comparison, you might say:

- less milk, but fewer milk bottles
- less in your trolley, fewer items.