MNW English Grammar » Determiners » A few and few, a little and little
A few and few, a little and little
A few and few, a little and little
These expressions show the speaker's attitude towards the quantity he/she is referring to.
A few (for countable nouns) and a little (for uncountable nouns) describe the quantity in a positive way:
Examples
- "I've got a few friends" (= maybe not many, but enough)
- "I've got a little money" (= I've got enough to live on)
Few and little describe the quantity in a negative way:
Examples
- Few people visited him in hospital (= he had almost no visitors)
- He had little money (= almost no money)
Other listening lessons
- Some and any
- Compound nouns made with SOME, ANY and NO
- Graded Quantifiers
- Enough + Noun
- Distributives - ALL, BOTH, HALF
- Distributives - EACH, EVERY, EITHER, NEITHER
- Difference words - OTHER, ANOTHER
- Question words - WHICH, WHAT, WHOSE
- Defining words - WHICH AND WHOSE
- Pre-determiners - SUCH, WHAT, RATHER, QUITE