Those troublesome modifiers of countable or uncountable nouns!

[Joe Carillo]

Question by Forum member Coolpipes posted in my Personal Messages box (May 19, 2018):

Dear Sir Joe,

Just would like to consult with you this grammar item I came across. I am torn between “a few” and “few.” I am guessing that “few” is the right answer. I am not 100% sure though.

“It was wonderful, ____ could have done what he did.”
(little, a little, a few, few)

I’ll great appreciate your response.

Best,
Pipes

My reply to Coolpipes:

You guessed right about “few.” It’s the right word for this sentence that you presented: “It was wonderful; few could have done what he did. Take note though that the correct punctuation between the clauses “It was wonderful” and “few could have done what he did” is a semicolon rather than a comma. This is because the two are independent clauses not connected by any conjunction; the logic of the statement they create can only be inferred. The comma is inadequate to punctuate the two clauses, resulting in what’s known as a comma splice or a fused sentence.

                         IMAGE CREDIT: WWW.KELINGTON.ES

Now as to why “few” is the right word for that sentence: The pronoun “few” means “not many persons or things” but “a few” means “some people or things.” There’s a subtle difference between them that can only be borne out by the intended context or sense of a statement. In the particular case of the sentence that you presented, it’s clear that “there are not a lot of people”—“few”—who “could have done what he did,” as opposed to the wrong, tangential, and illogical emphasis provided by the idea that “some people”—“a few”— “could have done what he did.”

Of course it also has to be explained why neither little” nor “a little” could qualify as correct for that sentence in question. The word “little” is an adjective that can’t work all by its lonesome in the second clause as constructed, as it needs to modify something that’s not provided in that clause; “a little” can’t work either because it’s a modifying adjective phrase that’s meant “to emphasize that something still remains,” which is clearly out of line from the intended sense of that sentence in question.
 
I trust that this has adequately clarified in your mind the sense evoked by those admittedly often troublesome modifiers of countable or uncountable nouns.