Jose Carillo's English Forum
Joe Carillo's Desk => You Asked Me This Question => Topic started by: Mwita Chacha on April 08, 2013, 07:32:17 AM
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I have lots of problems telling the usage difference between ''a little'' and ''little'' as well as ''a few'' and ''few.''
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When modifying uncountable nouns, use the adjective “little” to emphasize the lack of something, and “a little” to emphasize that something still remains, as in the following sentences:
“They have little time to run a successful political campaign.” (They don’t have the time to do a successful political campaign.)
“They have a little time left to do their political campaign.” (They have some time remaining to do their political campaign.)
On the other hand, when modifying countable nouns, use the adjective “few” to emphasize the lack of something, and “a few” to emphasize that something still remains, as in the following sentences:
“We have few good people to run the country’s judicial system.” (There are not enough good people to run the country’s judicial system.)
“We have a few good people to run the country’s judicial system.” (There still remain some good people to run the country’s judicial system.)
Follow the above modification patterns religiously and you won’t have trouble anymore using those tricky adjectives.