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uses of few and little

30 Mar 2015 20:53


30 Mar 2015 20:53
30 Mar 2015 20:53

please sir/madam please tell me the uses of few and little with examples..


30 Mar 2015 21:09
"Sakshi"
Moderator
30 Mar 2015 21:09

A Little
Use a little with uncountable nouns, e.g. a little help, a little progress, a little information, a little advice, etc.

A Few
Use a few with plural countable nouns, e.g. a few days, a few meetings, a few employees, a few sales, etc.

Little and Few
Little and few tend to be rather negative because they mean not much or not many, while a little and a few are more positive and mean some.

For example
X We have few clients. (sounds negative)

✓ We have a few clients. (sounds more positive)

X There is little time to complete this. (sounds negative)

✓ We have a little time to complete this. (sounds more positive)

When you are speaking to someone, it is better to use not much/not many or only a little/few instead of little and few. Little and few tend to sound more formal and are better used in writing.

For example:
We haven’t had many enquiries about our new product. (not many/informal/spoken)

We have had few enquiries about our new product. (few/formal/written)

We haven’t sold many properties in the past month. (not any/informal/spoken)

We have sold few properties in the past month. (few/formal/written)

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-lesson-little-few.php