To the Editor: A black day for the MJA, I thought, on seeing the title of the article by Crotty, “More students and less patients: the squeeze on medical teaching resources”.1

I hesitate, but only briefly, to wave the Fowler brothers’ classic work at you. The revised 3rd edition, by the brothers’ proxy, R W Burchfield, notes that “Regrettable, but prevalent among some standard as well as many non-standard speakers, is the use of less with an unprotected plural noun”.2 He goes on to give examples, among which your article title could well appear, and concludes, “The incorrect use is very widespread and seems likely to be ineradicable, however regrettable that may be”.

The author of the Editorial is not discussing an amorphous pile of patients. He is writing about a countable number of people, of which, regrettably, fewer are willing to participate in the education of those they expect to look after them in later life.

In reply: We plead guilty, but knowingly so. When this article was being proofread, there was much discussion about this “regrettable” use of less, but in this instance a catchy title was preferred to following Burchfield’s prescription.1 We take comfort from The Cambridge Australian English style guide, which notes that “using fewer rather than less is . . . a stylistic matter rather than one of correct grammar”.2