Title

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      5 months ago

      Context.

      Here it’s being used a singular group of things.

      Like, a herd of cows is a singular thing made up of lots of individual things.

      If you lost 50% of the herd, you wouldn’t say you had fewer herd

      You’d say you have less of a herd.

      But language is what we make it, it’s why the rules are blurry

      • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Your argument is supporting the comment you’re replying to. “Users” is equivalent to “cows” in your example, not “herd”. If you lost 50% of the herd, you’d still have a herd of cows, but you’d have fewer cows, just like there are a lot fewer users in this instance.

        Herd is closer to userbase. Lemmy has a userbase; Reddit has a userbase. Lemmy’s userbase has a lot fewer users than Reddit’s.

        • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          Both may be correct depending on the speaker. English has exceptions to everything… I learned that from a European.

          • KoboldCoterie@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            It’s not, but even if it was, the original comment would be grammatically incorrect.You wouldn’t say “You have a lot less herd”. “Less of a herd” would work, “Your herd is a lot smaller” would work better, but it was written originally as though ‘users’ was a collection of individuals, not a userbase as a singular item.

          • deranger@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            “There are a lot fewer users” is the proper grammar. You wouldn’t say “There is users online”, you’d say “There are users online” because users is plural. “There is a user online” would be singular.

      • deranger@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        Here it’s being used a singular group of things

        It’s not singular, “users” is plural. “A group of users” is singular, but “users” is referring to multiple individuals. The correct verb to use with users is are.

        For example, you would be incorrect to say “There is users online”, but you could say “There is a group of users online”.