Ls 9. a few / a little

Lesson 9. a few / a little

Few is used with count nouns: a few = 3-4 few = a small amount

• How many cars are there?

  • There are just a few (a few = 3 or 4)

• There are a few bananas on the table.

• She's sad because she has very few friends.

(This means she doesn't have many friends. Notice there is no article. "A few" means something different.)

• Few people were at the meeting. She expected 20, but only three came. ( In this example and the one above, the situation is not good.)

• Little is used with non-count nouns a little / little = a small amount

• He dropped a little paint on his wife's head.

You can also use ... a little bit of

• He dropped a little bit of paint on his wife's head.

• There's a little snow on the road and on the ground

• He got very little sleep last night. (Notice that "sleep" is a noun in this sentence. "A little sleep" is a small amount of sleep, and "little sleep" is not very much sleep or no sleep.)

• Did she find what she was looking for in the newspaper?

  • No. There was very little information