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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