According to a news item on the Plain English Campaign’s web site, the Tesco supermarket chain is to replace the signs reading “10 items or less” with new signs reading “Up to 10 items”.
Lovers of good English usage have always been infuriated by the old signs because they ignored the rule that “fewer” is used with countable nouns and “less” is only used with non-countable nouns, as in “I worked fewer hours last week and so I earned less money”.
Now I wonder when supermarkets are going to stop selling “stationary”?
(Many thanks to my friend Karen M. for pointing out this news item.)
Maybe this is the reason technical communicators should shop online – to avoid signs like this.
(Congratulations on your blog, by the way.)