English Grammar Little vs. A Little Few vs. A Few

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about using a

little and little and a few and few I’m

gonna talk about the little differences

in using an article and not using an

article with these words so let’s get

started

okay first I want to look at a little

vs. little so before we talk about using

this article I want to mention we use

little or a little with uncountable

nouns so nouns that we cannot count if

you’re not sure about countable or

uncountable nouns please take a look at

the videos on our channel there are a

few example videos a few other videos

you can check to learn more about

countable and uncountable nouns so we

use little with uncountable nouns nouns

that we cannot count we use a little to

mean simply a small amount of the noun

so using a little has a very neutral

feel so neutral means it’s not like

positive it’s not negative it’s very

neutral very flat depending on the

speaker’s intonation it could be a

little bit positive it could have a

positive feel about it so that you’ll

just have to listen to the person

speaking or to think about the situation

you need to do that but in most cases

it’s just very neutral there’s nothing

positive nothing negative then little so

no article here you’ll notice no article

little means only a small amount of the

noun only a small amount so here we have

a negative feel oftentimes we have a

very negative feel like there’s only a

small amount of something and that’s bad

or and that makes a problem so we use no

article to communicate this only feeling

like this only

that’s too bad sort of idea so let’s

look at an example of this first we have

a little time we have a little time and

we have little time so first time is an

uncountable noun so we’re using little

there but we see we have a little time

like we have a little time to finish

this project for example so showing with

a little here or rather by using a

little here we’re communicating a very

neutral point just a simple fact we have

a little time or maybe if I’m excited

about something I could say well we have

a little time we can do something extra

for the project then it feels a little

bit more positive however in the second

sentence we have little time that’s

usually the intonation we use we have

little time so that sounds like there’s

very little time there’s only a little

time so that’s another way to say that

but we have little time sounds like

perhaps there’s not enough time or the

deadline is quickly approaching so

there’s not much time would be another

way to say that it has a negative feel

about it I’m going to save this example

sentence this pair for a little bit

later because there’s another point I’d

like to make but let’s keep in mind that

this use of the article communicates a

simple fact and no article communicates

a negative ok so let’s look at this same

idea with a few and few so we talked

about using little and a little with

uncountable nouns few and a few are used

with countable nouns nouns that we can

count with 1 2 3 and so on so just as

with a little and little a few

communicates a small number of the noun

and it’s just a general like neutral

kind of fact statement there’s no

positive no negative unless the speaker

chooses to create some feeling like they

use their voice to make the situation or

to make the statement sound more

positive

we can use a few to do that using no

article creates this negative feeling

so using few means only a small number

of the noun so there’s that negative

feel again there so only a small number

like there’s not enough of something or

it’s too bad so something negative

perhaps has happened so let’s take a

look at an example that uses a few and a

few first he gave us a few ideas he gave

us a few ideas

so you’ll notice yes a few with the

article here and don’t forget your s so

this is a countable noun idea we need to

use the plural form a few ideas so he

gave us a few ideas a general fact just

a simple statement or if I’m excited I

could say he gave us a few ideas like I

sound happy I sound positive about that

if however maybe I had some expectation

like this was a really creative person I

expected lots and lots and lots of ideas

but he didn’t give us a lot of ideas I

want to communicate that I can say he

gave us few ideas

he gave us few ideas so we keep this

ideas in the plural form the only change

is no article in front of few he gave us

few ideas so this shows that like we

maybe had some expectation or we hoped

for something different so he gave us

few ideas and that’s bad or that’s a

negative thing so when we want to

communicate this using few or little we

use an article or no article to change

the feeling to change the nuance of the

sentence okay so I want to continue by

looking at these last pairs of example

sentences here so I explained in both of

these cases that using no article

creates a negative feel like most in

most situations I would say however if

you’re dealing with the situation where

your noun is a bad thing so I’ve made a

note here if

noun in your sentence refers to

something bad or to something negative

then the feeling actually changes the

feeling becomes positive when you use no

article so let’s look at this example

sentence first or this pair rather so in

this case my noun is pollution pollution

means like a dirty environment like

dirty water dirty air some kind of

environment related problems so

pollution is a bad thing in most cases I

think so pollution is a bad thing if I

want to make a sentence using little or

a little because pollution is an

uncountable noun I could say the city

has a little pollution so that’s a

statement of fact the city has a little

pollution yes if I use no article here

though the city has little pollution

actually that’s a good thing

so we’re saying there’s only a little of

this so because pollution is a bad thing

using little shows there’s not a large

amount of this bad thing and that means

it’s good so if this noun is something

that’s negative or that’s not good

then using no article is going to create

a more positive meaning there so let’s

look at one more example same idea just

a different noun and a different word

here few so let’s look at this countable

noun problem so problem is a bad thing a

negative thing in many cases a problem

is something we don’t want first we have

a few problems we have a few problems so

again just a simple statement of fact

so I’m probably not happy about that I

would not say we have a few problems I

would say we have a few problems so

there’s a negative feel with this

actually same thing over here as well

second though we have few problems so

this means only a small number of this

thing

this bad noun in this case so because

there are few a small number of these

problems this sentence expresses a good

situation so we have few problems that’s

a good thing so in cases where your noun

is referring to something that’s not

good you can actually change the meaning

if you do not use the article in front

of little or few so keep that in mind

that’s just kind of an exception in most

cases though you’ll see it used as I

talked about in the beginning in most

cases it follows this rule this negative

feel but just pay attention to the noun

that little or few is modifying and you

can kind of understand

should it be negative feel or a positive

feel okay so this is an introduction or

a quick lesson on the differences

between a little and little and few and

a few so I hope that it was helpful for

you if you have any questions or

comments or if you want to practice

making some example sentences in the

comment section please feel free to do

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much for watching this lesson and I will

see you again soon bye

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