MovieChat Forums > Moonrise Kingdom (2012) Discussion > Suzy said she would return the record pl...

Suzy said she would return the record player in ten days or less...

posted 9 years ago by farnsworth47
7 replies | jump to latest

So was she not intending to run away forever with Sam? It seems like she never intended to look back but the note she left for her brother confused me. When did she plan on coming back?

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] StrongCarl 9 years ago

That line always bothers me. We all know it should be "... 10 days or fewer."

Less is used when referring to units of time; fewer would be incorrect in this case.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] StrongCarl 9 years ago

You are correct only if the time period cannot be counted, e.g. less than a year, less than a week, less than a fortnight.

However when a countable quantity is specified, e.g. 10 days, the term is fewer.

Fewer than 10 days. That would be 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 day.

Less than a week. Fewer than 7 days. Less than a year, fewer than 365 days.

No. That is not correct. When talking about time in terms of days, we're not talking about discrete units that are counted.

If you were looking at the number of days below 32 degrees in a month, you could say "January had fewer than 27 days below freezing this year".

But when you're talking about a continuous period of time, less is the correct form, not fewer.

Suzy is saying that the record player is going to be returned at some point within the next 10 days; she is not saying that it will be returned after a discrete number of days. She is not counting a number of days until it will be returned.

[–] StrongCarl 9 years ago

BTW, your example is stupid. Years, months, weeks and fortnights can be counted just as easily as days can be counted.

[–] YellowManReanimated 9 years ago

BTW, your example is stupid. Years, months, weeks and fortnights can be counted just as easily as days can be counted.

Not if there's only one of them, as was presented in the post you replied to.

I think the argument you were having was interesting though, it goes to show that being a stickler about "grammar" rarely gets you anywhere. Usage trumps rules and fewer and fewer people are using "fewer".

Against the faint background of reality, imagination spins out and weaves new patterns

[–] StrongCarl 9 years ago

I do wonder about that. Maybe the first time she "ran away", Suzy was being a realist - she knew that they weren't really going to be able to leave forever and that it was an adventure that would end after a few days. Once she was brought home after she had spent more time out, her mind was made up that she was, in fact, ready to leave her family for good (even though again that didn't happen).