Skill 22 Watch for Words That Are Often Confused
Some people claim that the English language is difficult to learn because there are many words that are easily confused for each other, and people often mistakenly use one word in a particular situation when a different word is required.
For example, people often use the words less and fewer incorrectly. The word less is used in referring to something that can’t be counted. Conversely, fewer is used when something can be counted.
“I completed the job in less time than George took to do it” is the correct use of the word less. “I completed the job in fewer hours than George took to do it” is also correct. Time is a concept that can’t be counted, but hours or minutes certainly can be counted.
Get McGraw-Hill's Top 50 Skills For A Top Score: ASVAB Reading and Math now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
