The students of English sometimes have difficulty understanding the difference between words few and little. Both adjectives have the same meaning, little or few, but they are used in different circumstances that we show you below. If your goal is to learn to master English perfectly, knowing the use of each of these terms is essential, so in this oneHowTo.com article we explain in detail what is the difference between few and little in English.
Few and little
FEW
Few is an adjective that translates as few or few, and always accompanies countable or plural nouns:
- There were few people at the concert
- I have few friends (I have few friends)
LITTLE
Little is an adjective that translates as little or little, and always accompanies uncountable or singular nouns:
- She has made little progress (has made little progress)
- I have little money (I have little money)
Both words, when they are loose, have a negative meaning. They translate as not much, Not many, not many or not many, or not as much as expected.
So the difference between few and little is that:
- Few translates into plural (few, few), and therefore always goes with plural nouns
- Little translates into singular (little, little), and therefore always goes with singular nouns
A few and a little
On the other hand, if a few already little we place the article to ahead, these words will acquire a more positive meaning than before. A few it means a few or a few and a little a bit.
Then, few and little indicate that there is not much of something, but a few and a little they indicate that there is enough but not much. For instance:
- I have few friends (I have few friends / I don’t have many friends) BUT I have a few friends (I have a few friends / I have some friends)
- I have little money (I have little money / I don’t have much money) BUT I have a little money (I have some money / I have some money)
- There is little water (There is little water / There is not much water) BUT There is a little water (There is a little water / There is some water)
Other terms that are misleading
Learn English perfectly It is not an easy task, that is why it is important to understand the differences between the terms that most commonly lead to confusion, some of them are very common in everyday language. Once we master these distinctions we will achieve speak more appropriately reaching an outstanding level of conversation.
That is why we have prepared a list of articles with which you can discover the difference between:
Dare to discover them!
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