Almost all of our native language is learned orally with students' learning a written dialect that is more formal than our common speech. Although count/noncount is basically learned orally, more and more speakers seem not to have learned to distinguish between less and fewer thereby requiring that it be taught in school. My students seemed fascinated by fewer than five gallons of gas when you can carry just so many gallon cans and less than five gallons when you are measuring it at the gas pump Scott Catledge Professor Emeritus ******************************************************** To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/