<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">That’s more responding to the subject line — which is not mine originally, so I accept no blame for it;). This seems an ambiguous case because less sex could mean fewer sex acts or less time (in seconds or as a percentage) expended on sex. A person could have two hours of continuous sex a day, but consider that one sex act (how to draw the line?) or have a half hour of sex a day, but have it broken into three ten minute sex acts. Who has had more sex in these cases?<div><br></div><div>In this context, “sex” seems a mass known, which is why you and I had to fall back on “sex act” to be clear, no?</div><div><br></div><div>And I think the real test is whether people understand the construction. Yes, “fewer sex acts” is standard English, but using less instead of fewer rarely confuses readers or listeners, does it? <br><br><div id="AppleMailSignature" dir="ltr"><div style="line-height: normal;"><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sample my Kindle books at:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://author.to/DanUst">http://author.to/DanUst</a></span></p></div></div></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"></div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br>On Nov 19, 2018, at 4:46 PM, William Flynn Wallace <<a href="mailto:foozler83@gmail.com">foozler83@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Grammar problem: 'less' usually refers to things that are continuous in quantity - more rice, less rice, whereas 'fewer'usually refers to things that are discrete in quantity - more eggs, fewer eggs. So you can have fewer people, not less people.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">But just what is sex?? Discrete or continuous? Have to go with discrete, which makes the awkward construction 'people having fewer sex'. Nah. Fewer sex 'acts' works. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">People who go all the way with the male to female thing could, in a twisted way, have less sex, or maybe less sex things to have sex with. Nah, still have to be fewer. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">Sorry I wasted your time.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000">bill w</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 5:20 PM Dan TheBookMan <<a href="mailto:danust2012@gmail.com">danust2012@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto">Sort of related to the original subject:<div><br></div><div><a href="https://medium.com/the-radical-center/does-america-have-a-child-bride-crisis-fa4afdb7b4bc" target="_blank">https://medium.com/the-radical-center/does-america-have-a-child-bride-crisis-fa4afdb7b4bc</a></div><div><br></div><div>And Peron seems correct about how people code this issue in a way that makes there appear to be a bigger problem.<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="line-height:normal"><div style="line-height:normal"><span style="line-height:20px;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height:normal"><span style="line-height:20px;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height:normal"><span style="line-height:20px;background-color:rgba(255,255,255,0)">Dan</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></blockquote></div></body></html>