Someone told me that once a week is the least so there won't be such a thing like "less than once a week" but twice or once a month is less than "once a week" am I wrong?
Is this usage incorrect?
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4It's fine. I don't ride my bike often at the moment. Certainly less than once a week.– DanMar 16, 2017 at 12:02
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1There's nothing wrong with it. You could attempt to be more specific with "once or twice a month" or some such, but it all depends on how precise you need to be, as well as how much you even can say with certainty about the frequency.– Hot LicksMar 16, 2017 at 12:38
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Very strictly speaking, "less than once a week" is "zero times a week" i.e. never - so the correct way would be to say "less often than once a week". But I don't think anyone is so pedant.– michael.hor257kMar 16, 2017 at 13:44
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1You are right, and the someone is wrong. (But this is more a question about time or logic than it is a question about English.)– DrewMar 16, 2017 at 14:48
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@michael.hor257k - I would say that you are flat-out wrong on that.– Hot LicksMar 16, 2017 at 17:27
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1 Answer
"Less than once a week" is fine. This could mean 0.75 times per week, or 0.1 times per week, or any other number less than one time per week. Technically "never" is logically consistent with "less than once time per week", although this would be misleading.
Google ngram viewer shows "less than once a week" to be nearly as popular as "less than once a month", and much more popular than "less than once a day" or "less than once a year" are.
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1Correct. "Less than once a week" is describing a rate (events per unit time), and, except in fairly constrained circumstances, rates can be fractional. There is nothing syntactically or semantically wrong with the usage, and it is idiomatic. Mar 21, 2017 at 21:56
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As you say, "less than once a week" applies quite well to averages of occurrences spread over several or many weeks that come out in the range of fractions between 0 per week and 1 per week. In contrast, "fewer than one a week" would imply (to some readers and hearers, anyway) a whole number less than one per week, which would amount to saying "zero a week" or "never." Apr 3, 2017 at 18:24