Communication tips

Editorial Tip of the Week: Fewer or Less?

Use fewer for things you can count (e.g., people, jelly beans, books), and use less for things that are not countable, do not have a plural, but may be measured in volume (e.g., coffee, rain, money, time).

Examples:

- Fewer people attended the presentation than we had expected.
- If I had less coffee in the morning, I might be nicer. However: If I had fewer cups of coffee if the morning, I might be nicer.

Less can also be used with numbers when they are on their own and with expressions of measurement or time:

Examples:

- Her employment lasted less than five years.

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Noon and Midnight -- NOT 12:00 p.m. or 12:00 a.m.

We see it often in business documents: Using the time expression 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m. is substandard. Why? These abbreviations are Latin abbreviations meaning "ante meridiem" and "post meridiem," respectively. Those translate to "before midday" (morning) and "after midday" (afternoon and evening). If you think about it, there is precisely one point in the day when it is "midday" - neither before nor after. That is what we call noon or noontime. So rise above Google's and MS Outlook's apparent ignorance and avoid "12:00 p.m." Write "noon" instead. Oh - and for that time in the night when it is the moment between one day and the next, use "midnight," not 12:00 a.m.

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I or me?

The two personal pronouns I and me are often used incorrectly, usually in sentences in which I is being used with another noun.

Here are some tips to help you get it right:

Use the pronoun I, along with other subjective pronouns such as we, he, she, you, and they, when the pronoun is the subject of a verb:

He went to bed.
We waited for the bus.
Clare and I are going for a coffee.

Use the pronoun me, along with other objective pronouns such as us, him, her, you, and them, when the pronoun is the object of a verb:

Danny thanked them.
The dog followed John and me to the door.

Use the pronoun me, along with other objective pronouns such as us, him, her, you, and them, when the pronoun is the object of a preposition:

Rose spent the day with Jake and me.
Send the report to Monica and me when you are finished.

An easy way of making sure you've chosen the right pronoun is to see whether the sentence reads properly if you remove the additional noun:

√ I am going for a coffee
X Me am going for a coffee
√ The dog followed me
X The dog followed I
√ Rose spent the day with me
X Rose spent the day with I

From: http://oxforddictionaries.com/page/grammartips/grammar-tips;jsessionid=A887BD95C4337C398E49F666930C7A1E