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Using Few, A Few, Little and A Little

Date: Aug 15 2007

Topic: Grammar

Author: jperez

Lesson

Using Few, A Few, Little and A Little

•The phrases a few and a little have a positive meaning.  They talk about something that you have or something that exists. 
She has a few friends in her new class.  (Positive: She has some friends.)
George drank a little water because he was thirsty.  (Positive: Some water)

•The words few and little have a negative meaning. They talk about something that you don't have or something very small, almost nonexistent. 
She is not popular.  She has few friends in her new class.
(Negative: She does not have many friends; almost no friends)
George drank little water and now he feels sick.
(Negative: George drank almost no water; very little water.)

•You can use Very to make the negative idea stronger or the amount seem smaller.
They are very poor.  They have very little money.
 (Negative: They practically have no money; almost nothing.)

Important:  Few and a few are used with plural countable nouns.
                 Little and a little are used with uncountable nouns.

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