On: Poll: long-term contractors, what is your hourly r...

[jholman]

I disagree. Languagelog (an eminent source of linguistic pedantry) is saying exactly what mkl is saying. His quote is in-context, I don't know what more else to say.

Can you elaborate on your theory to the contrary, Stavros?

[stavros → jholman]

Sure. This is the salient point:

> However, it would be different for less: less refers to quantity or amount among things that are measured and to number among things that are counted.

(emphasis mine)

This means that, as the article goes on to detail, you say "we have fewer choices" but "we have less than 5 choices". In the article's tables, it compares "less <choices> than N" to "fewer <choices> than N", not just "less/fewer <choices>".

It's not saying that fewer is correct anywhere. It's saying that "5 items or fewer" sounds stilted. Therefore, the OP's "less choices" is wrong by any standard.

[emmelaich → jholman]

The link says fewer is preferred for countables by most.

I would say less choice, but fewer choices