All Chewed Up

The sticky, surprising story of gum

From the November 2026 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will identify when to use fewer or less.

Featured Skill: Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics,

Standards

Directions:

Read the hint below. Then read the blurbs that follow. Pick the correct word in each bolded word pair.

Fewer or Less?

Use fewer with count nouns (things you can count one by one): fewer apples, fewer homework assignments, fewer cups of water

Use less with non-count nouns (things measured as an amount that you can’t count one by one): less applesauce, less homework, less water

Exception: Use less with distances, units of time and weight, and sums of money: less than 12 miles, less than 2 hours, less than 10 pounds, less than $5

Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images

One Sticky Wall

In Seattle, Washington, people have been sticking their germy, chewed-up gum on this brick wall for decades. In 2015, the city scrubbed the wall clean, removing a little fewer/less than 2,400 pounds of gum. But in fewer/less than 48 hours, people had begun to re-goo it. What do you think: Is this wall an unconventional work of art or a gross health hazard?

Meatball Gum

People have been chewing tree resin for thousands of years. But gum as we know it today was developed in 1859. An inventor from New York named Thomas Adams got the idea for it while trying to make a new kind of rubber. His first batch of gum sold out in fewer/less than 24 hours. Today no fewer/less than 1,000 varieties of gum are manufactured and sold in the United States, with flavors that range from savory bacon and spicy ghost pepper to sour pickle and Italian meatball. Yum?

Loads of Litter

Fewer/Less Americans are buying gum than in the past. In 2023, gum sales were down 32 percent from 2018. Will lower gum sales mean fewer/less flattened wads of gum on sidewalks? Let’s hope so! Some cities worldwide spend millions of dollars each year removing discarded gum from public spaces.