Mrs. Joe was a very clean housekeeper, but had an exquisite art of making her cleanliness more uncomfortable an unacceptable than dirt itself.
 --Charles Dickens, Great Expectations


It's odd -- I do run into people (particularly Americans, for some reason) who believe that Good Writing is impenetrable, and uses Lots of Long Words. I was taught, growing up, reading people like Fowler and Graves, that the secret of good writing was clarity and, where possible, simplicity, and that the aim was, above all, communication. By all means use any word you want, as long as it's exactly the right word for what you need to say.
--Neil Gaiman


Fan: Hi Neil, I'm hoping you can settle a dispute I'm having with several co-workers. Is it "five years or less" or "five years or fewer"? I've read conflicting opinions in reference books and on the internet. I know that when the noun is plural and can be counted, then fewer is correct. However, does this apply to time as well? Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you. Jeanette

Neil Gaiman: Well, I've never used "or fewer" with years in that phrase (and a quick google of "years or less" gives about half a million instances, as opposed to a couple of thousand of "years or fewer"). Possibly because time in that sense is, thanks to the "or", more amorpheous, like water, and the less would stand in for "in five years or (in) less (than five years)". I'd use fewer with years if I was talking about specific amounts of time. "He learned to fly in twelve years, two years fewer than it took him to learn to conjure ifrits."