As many amateur grammarians know, it is traditionally incorrect to say "less people" or "less dollars". Public usage appears to be rendering this guideline obsolete, but there are still stubborn individuals who cling to the past.
"Less" and "amount" can be used to describe things like money and time. "You'll get less money if you work that amount of time." This is because you can't count time and although you can count money, you have to know how many dollars/pounds/euros/Pula it is. So it's "less" money and "fewer" dollars. It's an "amount" of time but a "number" of minutes. This gets abused all the time, even by professional broadcasters, who say "amount of people".
So okay, this might be a losing battle and not worth ruffling one's feathers, but even if one adheres to the traditional rules, there remains the subject of mashed potatoes!
If you want a smaller portion of starchy succulence, do you say you want fewer mashed potatoes or less mashed potatoes? Frankly, neither sounds right. The first seems wrong because potatoes in that form can't actually be counted. What does one mashed potato look like? The second sounds dumb for the same reason "less minutes" does.
So who can answer this?
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