A few, few, A little, little...what's the difference?

Welcome to my 28^th blog! I hope you’ll agree that this is quite a large amount. However, today we’re going to talk about the opposite: small amounts.

Here is an example: Recently, we have had little rain.

Now… why did I use ‘little’ in the sentence above? Why not ‘a little rain’, or even ‘a few rain’ or ‘few rain'?

Well, let’s take a closer look.

‘A few’, ‘few’, ‘a little’ and ‘little’ are all quantifiers referring to small amounts, but there are some important differences.

Let’s start with ‘a few’ and ‘few’. The first thing to remember is that both of these refer to plural, countable nouns.

It's also important to remember that ‘a few’ is more than ‘few’.

Examples of ‘a few’ include:

I still have a few friends from my school years.

A few of my colleagues went out for a drink after work.

She mentioned a few things that I can improve on, but overall, my evaluation went well.

‘Few’ is different because it is used in a negative sense, and means ‘almost none’.

Few friends kept in touch when I left school, and that’s a pity.

Few of my colleagues went out for a drink after work – we had a huge deadline and we were all under pressure.

There were few things she was happy with, in fact my evaluation was a disaster!

Now let’s move on to ‘a little’ and ‘little’. Both of these refer to uncountable nouns.

It's also important to remember that ‘a little’ is more than ‘little’.

Examples of ‘a little’ include:

She can speak a little Spanish, so she’s looking forward to practising it in Spain.

She did a little food shopping, enough for the weekend.

I have a little time, let me help you with your homework.

However, ‘little’ is used in a negative sense, and means ‘almost none’. For example:

She can speak little Spanish, so she’s quite nervous about going to Spain on her own.

She did little food shopping, so now she’ll have to go again on Saturday.

I have little time to help you with your homework – can you ask your sister instead?

So to summarise:

A few and few = plural countable nouns.

A few is more than few.

Few is used to express negative situations, events or outcomes

A little and little = uncountable nouns.

A little is more than little.

Little is used in negative situations, events or outcomes.

So now it’s up to you! Try writing sentences about small quantities using all of the above and then if you’d like to, feel free to post them in the comments section below.