Less or fewer?
Yes, we know that "phone calls" and "misunderstandings" are countable nouns, so fewer is grammatically correct, and less, which ought only to be used with uncountable nouns like "petrol", or "traffic", isn't. We, too, find it grates when we encounter in an otherwise literate piece of work, "less teachers in schools", say, or "less visitors this year".
But less is better understood by more people. For elegant writing, we naturally prefer fewer but in plain English, less is better.
