{"id":35,"date":"2019-04-15T15:36:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/zyle\/?p=35"},"modified":"2021-03-23T04:57:34","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T04:57:34","slug":"few-and-little","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/grammar\/few-and-little.htm","title":{"rendered":"Few and Little &#8211; English grammar courses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this lesson, we will be talking about some new quantifiers: few and little. These words are used to express the quantity of something. Since we just said something, you now know that we are going to be talking about small amounts this time. The difference between the words depends on just how small we are talking about.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A few<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few is used when we talk about countable nouns and it means that the quantity is not much at all. A few also has a positive meaning behind it. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We have a few books in our library.<\/li>\n<li>I have a few friends.<\/li>\n<li>We have a few rooms in our house.<\/li>\n<li>I have a few job offers right now.<\/li>\n<li>Let\u2019s go get a few new clothes to wear.<\/li>\n<li>We\u2019ll see a few famous sights in the city today.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These sentences are drawing attention to the fact that we have certain options at our disposal. For example, the sentence \u201cI have a few friends\u201d subtly draws attention to the fact that you definitely don\u2019t have no friends and that they are a reasonable number. \u201cA few\u201d can also have a subtle nuance of modesty.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Few<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Few is used to describe the small quantity in a negative way. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Our school is poor so we have few books in the library<\/li>\n<li>We have few neighbors in this area.<\/li>\n<li>Few of my family members are left.<\/li>\n<li>Few friends visited me when I was sick.<\/li>\n<li>We have few children.<\/li>\n<li>I have few hobbies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These sentences are drawing attention to the fact that you have a low amount of something. For example, \u201cwe have few children\u201d brings to mind an image that the parents believe that the number of children they have is somehow of such a low amount that they might need to feel ashamed about it. The article \u201ca\u201d can make a big difference in nuance concerning the quantifiers we are learning today.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A little<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A little is used for uncountable nouns. It has a positive meaning behind it. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I have a little money but I can handle this situation.<\/li>\n<li>Is it okay if I eat a little more?<\/li>\n<li>Can you move a little to the left?<\/li>\n<li>Can I take to you for a little bit?<\/li>\n<li>I think this dress is a little bit too big for you.<\/li>\n<li>I need a little help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let\u2019s analyze one sentence here: I need a little help. This gives the idea that if you just had <em>a little <\/em>more help, you will be able to do what you need to do successfully.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Little<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Little is used for uncountable nouns to express a negative idea about quantity:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Last year when I was in trouble. I had little money.<\/li>\n<li>There was little I could do at that point.<\/li>\n<li>We have little money left.<\/li>\n<li>We have little time to prepare right now.<\/li>\n<li>I think little of him.<\/li>\n<li>We got little enjoyment on the beach.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here we get the very opposite feeling from \u201ca little\u201d. All of the sentences above have a negative, almost hopeless, feel about them. Let\u2019s contrast two very similar sentences to really understand the difference here: \u201cWe have little money left\u201d and \u201cwe have a little money left\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have little money left\u201d has a nuance that you have such little money now that you can\u2019t afford anything more. \u201cWe have a little money left\u201d means that the amount of money you have is still very small but you have just enough to afford something with it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Important note: feel free use adjectives like \u201cvery\u201d to make the amount even smaller. For example: very few people came to the cinema, our work is very little now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s do some exercises with what we have learned already. Explain the difference between the following sentences.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\u201cI have a few opportunities right now\u201d vs. \u201cI have few opportunities right now.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI have a little time\u201d vs. \u201cI have little time.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this lesson, we will be talking about some new quantifiers: few and little. These words are used to express the quantity of something. Since we just said something, you now know that we are going to be talking about small amounts this time. The difference between the words depends on just how small we &#8230; <a title=\"Few and Little &#8211; English grammar courses\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/grammar\/few-and-little.htm\" aria-label=\"Read more about Few and Little &#8211; English grammar courses\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/youlearnenglish.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}