Obviously the Japanese words mean “to increase” and the English words describe a “decrease,” but that aside, I was reading this HiNative explanation (https://ja.hinative.com/questions/11089197), and the first answer seemed to describe a similar difference between 増える/増やす and 増す like the one between “fewer” and “less”. That is to say…
増える / fewer = increase/decrease of something with a distinct, countable value
Ex: みかんが増えます。// There are fewer oranges.
増す/ less = increase/decrease of something with an indistinct, uncountable value
Ex: 雨が増す。// There is less rain.
Is my understanding on track, or does the distinguishing factor not map like that?
by theclacks