My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

Five items or less (less what?)
A  common  mistake  is  the  confusion  of  less  and  fewer  .  Supermarkets
almost always get it wrong.
Use fewer with countable nouns, e.g. five items or fewer .
Use less with non-countable nouns, e.g. less traffic than yesterday .
We’re all in it together
A  collective  noun  is  one  that  refers  to  a  group  or  number  of  individuals;
common  examples  include  audience  ,  class  ,  family  ,  flock  ,  group  ,  jury  ,
orchestra , parliament , staff and team , and there are many more.
Strictly  speaking  all  these  words  are  singular  and  take  a  singular  verb.
Straightforward enough, you might think. The problem is that a collective noun
can refer to a whole group acting as a single entity and also to all the members of
that group, acting as individuals.
Are you still there?
Rule: We  use  a  singular  verb  with  a  collective  noun  when  we  mean  the  whole
group acting as one; we use the plural verb when we are referring to the actions
of the individuals within the group. For example:
The battalion lost all its men in that
battle.
All the men died in the
battle.
The battalion lost their lives in that
battle.
All the men died, but not
necessarily all at once.
The group was waylaid by the airport
All members of the group

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bar.
went to the bar.
The group took so long drinking their
cocktails that they nearly missed their
flight.
But they did not all drink
the same cocktail at the
same time.
The staff has gone crazy.
All employees are acting
strangely.
The staff have locked themselves into
their offices.
But they are not all locked
in the same office.
Some  people  call  this  formal  agreement  –  when  you  say  the  staff  is  …  –  and