Breakdown of Теперь в каталоге намного меньше ограничений.
в
in / to (direction)
теперь
now (as opposed to before)
намного
much, by far
меньше
less (quantity or size)
Questions & Answers about Теперь в каталоге намного меньше ограничений.
Why use теперь here instead of сейчас?
Теперь is the perfect word here because it implies a change from a previous state. It means 'now (as opposed to how it used to be)'. Сейчас just means 'currently' or 'at this exact moment', without emphasizing that something has changed.
Could I just say много меньше instead of намного меньше?
No, in Russian you must use намного (or гораздо) to say 'much' or 'far' before a comparative word. You cannot use много directly before a comparative like меньше.
English uses 'fewer' for countable things like restrictions. Does меньше work for both 'less' and 'fewer'?
Yes! Russian doesn't have separate words for 'less' (uncountable) and 'fewer' (countable). You use меньше for both. Just remember that words expressing quantity force the following noun into the genitive case. Since we are talking about multiple restrictions, ограничение becomes the genitive plural ограничений.
Why does ограничений end in -ий?
The nominative singular is ограничение (restriction). Neuter nouns that end in -ие form their genitive plural by changing that ending to -ий.