Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster and Sonny Bono

Peter Junger writes,

>> But percentages aren't countable entities, so it's *less*. I hope
that
>> you don't think that it makes sense to speak of ``fewer than one-third
>> percent.''

No, I don't think that "fewer than one-third percent" makes sense.

Indeed, I don't know what "one-third percent" means; I've never seen that way of expressing a proportion. Do you mean one-third of whatever it is you're talking about? Or do you mean 0.033 percent of it (or them)?

>> If you insist on using your English rules, rather than the stricter
>> ones of mathematics, then you should say something like ``fewer than
>> five out of a hundred.''

Well, see, Peter, I do write in English. And in English, it's perfectly correct to write, say, "Fewer than five percent of those present were wearing hats." Were I to write "Less than five percent..." or "...was wearing hats," people might take me for an illiterate (albeit not an innumerate). ;-)

--Dodi Schultz Received on Tue Oct 15 2002 - 05:16:20 GMT