Grammar Moses: Less is more. Except when fewer is more.

Just as an editor always needs an editor, the marketing departments at institutions of higher learning always should avail themselves of the expertise of their English teachers.

A regular reader sent me a photo she shot of a sign at one of our community colleges that promotes summer classes. The campaign was built on a "less is more" framework.

The problem with adopting a slogan before you come up with the bullet points is you likely will end up with a few square pegs in round holes.

Such was the case with this sign. Here are the bullet points:

• "Less Tuition. More Value."

Good start.

• "Less Constraints. More Convenience."

Uh oh. Because "constraints" is a countable noun, it should be "fewer," not "less."

• "Less Classmates. More Attention."

Same problem. The plural-making "s" is a big giveaway.

• Less Courses. More Focus."

Once again, "courses" is a countable non.

•"Less Risk. More Reward."

At least it finished strong. "Tuition" and "risk" are the only cases on the "less" part of this sign in which the nouns are uncountable.

You might quibble with my ruling on "risk."

Sure, one can take risks - individual cases of exposures to danger - but in this case "risk" is used conceptually rather than as a collection of discrete situations. So while "risk" can be used as a count noun, in this case it is used as a noncount noun.

Britishisms

Sue Jansen of Winfield wrote to say she often hears things like "The doctor sent Jane to hospital," in which the article "the" is dropped.

"I watch the PBS British productions and hear a lot of this," she wrote. "However, I'm hearing this more frequently from our native born people and also read it in various publications. It sounds off to me. Is it an old way of speaking or is it something new that I'll have to hear more frequently?"

Remember when "Crocodile" Dundee was a box office smash?

Suddenly, everyone ditched their "grills" and started using "barbies."

I hired an Australian reporter about 10 years ago, and it didn't take long before all sorts of American-born reporters in my employ wanted to "go on holiday."

If only those reporters absorbed my style memos as well as they did Larissa's quirky Australianisms.

Crikey!

If you watched "Downton Abbey" on PBS, you might start saying, "Lord Bullrush is in hospital with a bad case of the skeevies."

We all love the sound of Brits, so it's natural to develop these affectations. We think it makes us sound smarter or cooler or "European."

The wealth of British-produced shows on Netflix and Amazon Prime surely has given us greater opportunity to adopt Britishisms as our own.

Horse named Facebook

"After reading your column on page 19, then turning to page 20, there was an article about actor Val Kilmer and his plans to visit Tombstone, Arizona, this summer for a festival," wrote Kim Christenson of Lake Zurich. "The second paragraph began: 'Kilmer announced he would be coming to Arizona in August on Facebook, the Sierra Vista Herald reported Thursday.'

I can't remember whether the name of Doc Holliday's horse's was uttered during the movie "Tombstone," but I can state unequivocally that its name was not "Facebook."

If that sentence were properly structured, you'd be led to believe "Facebook" was the horse's name rather the vehicle through which Mr. Kilmer announced his plans.

There is an order of things in building a sentence, you see.

To cite another movie, the title of the Danny Devito film "Throw Momma From the Train" was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the old Patti Page song "Momma From the Train," in which the chorus starts with "Throw Momma from the train a kiss, a kiss."

That syntax might make no sense to your ear, but it would to German immigrants. In their mother tongue, Germans put objects at the end of sentences.

If you're still waiting for how to salvage that Val Kilmer sentence, try: "Kilmer announced via Facebook he would be coming to Arizona in August."

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.