Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Less or Lesser

Esiste una rule of thumb per sapere quando si usa l'uno o l'altro
comparativo di "little" in funzione avverbiale prima di un aggettivo?
-- 
Enrico C
"Don't be such a chicken!"
chicken: coward (c) Dave's ESL Cafe Slang


Always use "less", e.g.  He was a bit less small than I remembered.
I'd like a tie with a bit less red on it,
Cheers
-- 
John G Davies

 comparativo di "little" in funzione avverbiale prima di un aggettivo?
Ah, ti riporto l'esempio del Collins Cobuild:
"... Lesser known works by famous artists"
Intendi questo uso? In effetti "... Less known works by famous artists"
andrebbe ugualmente bene. Aspetto anch'io i pareri degli esperti (la "rule
of thumb" di John è tanto corretta quanto drastica, mi pare). Ci saranno
sfumature?
Per il resto, "lesser" significa "minore", in varie accezioni.
Ciao, FB

 Per il resto, "lesser" significa "minore", in varie accezioni.
Davanti ai sostantivi, naturalmente, calza a pennello :)
"Children of a Lesser God"
-- 
Enrico C
"I cannot be friends when you act like an ass"
ass (2): an unworthy and hated person (c) Dave's ESL Cafe

 "The European Bureau for Lesser Used Languages"
In effetti, in questi casi "lesser" precede un verbo, non un
aggettivo.
-- 
"This appeal is likely to fall on deaf ears"
fall on deaf ears: they take no notice of what you have said

 
Generally: 
Less describes quantity ("I ate less than he did."  "My auto uses less gas
than yours.")
Lesser describes a relative condition: ("Among his lesser known works
are...." "His suggestions are of lesser help than her's.") 
Yet: "His suggestions offer less help than her's."  The preposition "of"
makes the difference in usage.
This is all a matter of usage and of what "rolls off the tongue" most
comfortably.
Bennett

 Bennett
Thinking for a moment longer:
In daily usage, "less" can be chosen almost universally, but not so with
"lesser."
You can say: "Among his less known works..." or "Among his lesser known
works...", but never would you say, "I ate lesser than he did."
In some social circles, using "lesser" might be considered a "fancy
affectation," but it isn't, when used correctly as a describer of a
relative condition.
Bennett, again, and finally.

Also, though this isn't really relevant to the original query,
"lesser" is of course used instead of "least" when talking about a
collection of two items, just as "-er" is used with other adjectives.
This has been discussed here before, of course. The larger of the two
boys, the lesser of two evils, the more expensive of the (two) books.
-- 
Adam Atkinson (
gh...@mistral.co.uk
)
"Let's catch that sick bird" he said, illegally.

comparativo di "little" in funzione avverbiale prima di un aggettivo?
rispondo a quello che chiedi (funzione avverbiale prima di un
aggettivo)
in frasii tipo 
one of the lesser-known + nome 
one of the lesser loved + nome 
etc
rule of thumb.. quando è comparativo di minoranza nella forma "one of
the lesser" (uno dei meno)
poi, in generale:
 less  puo' essere aggettivo, ma anche avverbio, preposizione ecc
lesser può essere solo aggettivo.. e  *sempre* davanti ad un nome


 makes the difference in usage.
I see. 
So, "less" modifies the verb, "lesser" applies to the noun, (if I got
it right).
-- 
Enrico C
"It' raining cats and dogs"
it is raining very hard [Doghause.com]