"No Fewer Than" / "No More Than" as Formal Quantifier Bounds
5 exercises — practise the formal quantifier bounds "no fewer than" and "no more than".
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "no fewer than" with a plural countable noun to state a minimum?
"...must run no fewer than three replicas..." correctly uses "fewer", which agrees with the plural countable noun "replicas". Option B uses "less", which is reserved for uncountable nouns or amounts, not a countable number of replicas. Option C wrongly substitutes "as" for "than". Option D scrambles the word order.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "no more than" with an uncountable noun to state a maximum in a resource limit?
"...allotted no more than 512 megabytes of memory" correctly caps the amount with "no more than". Option B wrongly uses "no fewer than", which states a minimum, contradicting the intent of a memory limit. Option C wrongly substitutes "as" for "than". Option D scrambles the word order.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly distinguishes "no fewer than" (countable minimum) from "no less than" (uncountable minimum) in the same requirements document?
"...no fewer than five nines... and no less than 99.9% overall uptime" correctly pairs "fewer" with the countable "nines" (discrete measurement points) and "less" with the uncountable percentage figure. The other options mismatch the two quantifiers with the wrong noun types.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "no fewer than" in a staffing requirement about people, a countable noun?
"...needs no fewer than four engineers..." correctly uses "fewer" for the countable noun "engineers". Option B uses "less", which is grammatically inappropriate for a countable plural noun in formal usage. Option C scrambles the word order. Option D wrongly substitutes "of" for "than".
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "no more than" to set an upper bound on a countable retry count?
"...attempt no more than three retries..." correctly caps the retry count at a maximum. Option B wrongly states a minimum instead of a maximum, reversing the intended constraint. Option C scrambles the word order. Option D wrongly substitutes "as" for "than".