Madam, – While I have little interest in grammatical pedantry, I must correct Graham Stull’s assertion (June 17th) that .333 (repeating) is not countable. As any student of maths can tell you, while the real numbers are uncountable, the rational numbers are indeed a countable set. So perhaps, if two out of nine students opt for something we should say fewer, and save less for the rare cases when pi out of nine students opt for something, – Is mise,
Dr FRANCIS SWEENEY,
Raffles Place,
Singapore.
Madam, – Does Dr. Neville Wilson (June 16th) really believe that the use of the word “less” in place of “fewer” in the sentence “Less than 20 per cent of Leaving Cert students have opted . . .” left anyone in doubt as to its meaning?
Language evolves. Let it. – Yours, etc,