Hey there! This is TOP episode 91: Little, Few vs A Little, A Few
My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher. My goal is to help you start speaking English with confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. It’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! I’ve been there. I was unable to speak English for many reasons that now I call a language blockade. Today I teach people like you how to speak English with confidence. Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning!
Hello, welcome to today’s episode. It’s grammar so it has to be short. You know my philosophy. Grammar? Ok, that’s important, but serve it in little nuggets, in bite size chunks. So that no one gets overwhelmed and too confused to use it. Let’s jump right in, there’s no time to waste. Ok, let’s begin.
Little and few both have this negative connotation. There’s something nostalgic to those words, if you catch my drift. Little is used with uncountable nouns, few is used with countable nouns.
little water, energy, time, money
few friends, carrots, books, chairs
When I said those words carry negative meaning I meant that you emphasise the small amount or number of something. Listen to this example:
Few members of the family accept me.
Said story. I am not happy with the number of family members who accept me. There are too few members of the family who accept me. You can hear it:
Few members. Few members. Few members of the family accept me.
One more example, this time with little. Have a listen:
I have little time to prepare for the class.
Did you hear that?
I have little time. Hm.
Not happy. There’s not enough time for me to prepare for the class.
The difference between few and little here is that you use few with plural countable nouns whereas you use little with uncountable nouns.
I have few friends, I have little energy. The glass is half empty for me. I’m a pessimist here, you know? Ok. We’ll come back to those same examples and I’ll give you more in just a minute. But first let’s look at a few and a little. Can you guess the difference already?
A few for starters. Again, not much changes you use it for countable nouns. This time though, well, have a listen yourself:
I have a few friends.
I have, I have a few friends, a few friends.
Did you hear that? The glass seems to be half full for me right now! I count my blessings, I’m grateful for those few friends I have.
How about a little? Listen to the example sentence:
I have a little time so let’s have a coffee.
What!? I have a little time, I don’t have much, still I don’t complain. It is what it is. Now I sound more optimistic, don’t I? I have a small amount, I have a small number, but it’s enough. I’m happy.
Ok. Just be careful not to oversimplify it. Don’t forget logic. If you omit an article ‘a’ with something negative, something you don’;t want, it’s good, isn;’t it? It’s not that if you don’t use ‘a’ before a noun it’s always negative. It depends on your approach to the noun. If I hate problems, like we all do, I’m happy to say:
I have few problems with him.
They are irrelevant, I’ll manage, I’m fine.
If I add ‘a’ before problems, well, listen:
I have a few problems with him.
Oops. Too bad.
Let’s have an example with some uncountable nouns, let’s take the weather. We often forget it’s uncountable,so we say sometimes: such a good weather, and that’s a mistake because weather is uncountable. In other words, it’s far better to say: Such nice weather! Let’s take the weather as an example here. Listen:
We had little bad weather.
Am I sad? Goodness no! I’m happy, we had good weather most of the time. We had little bad weather.
I hope you don’t feel confused. Honestly, I’m fairly sure you are! And that’s ok, that’s normal. It takes time and effort to get the grasp of those nuances. Because let’s be honest those differences are easy to overlook. Subtle differences, easily missed but they can change the meaning! And this is why we are dealing with this today. The differences we’ve covered today are relevant for your communication, for getting your message across. Being able to convey the thoughts from your head to someone else’s head is what is called fluency. Don’t skip this worksheet. You really need to practice translations! But first, let’s practice here and now. Let’s get you speaking out loud. Wearing a mask does not serve as an excuse to go on and repeat out loud. Here we go:
Few members of the family accept me so I feel lonely.
We had a little time to prepare before we had to go, so we didn’t feel stressed.
I had little interest in animal rights until I realised how important it is.
All she wanted was a few moments on her own, just to wind down.
I have little water left. There’s not enough to share.
There are only few people she can trust. This is really sad.
She is able to save a little money every month. Soon she’ll afford a new car.
We have a few eggs so we can make an omelette.
She’s lucky. She has few problems.
I can’t make cookies. I have too little sugar.
I have a few strawberries to give away, would you like one?
Nicely done! I hope this episode helped! I’m realistic though and I want the same from you. Please don’t think this is enough. To make sure you’ve embraced this topic and that you are able to use it you have to practice some more. That’s why I have prepared a worksheet for you. Go to your inbox, download it and translate the sentences. Don;t forget to read them out loud later! If you don’t have the worksheet you’re not a member of TOPeople, but relax, that’s fine. Just grab it at teacherola.com/91. When you get it you will become a member, it’s free so enjoy.
Thank you for listening, and please share this episode with just one person. Your friend, your family member. Let’s spread the message. No matter how enormous your language blockade is, no matter how big trauma you carry from school, how teachers failed you or how shy or introverted you are, you can start speaking English fearlessly. There’s zero doubt about it.
Subscribe to this podcast if you haven’t yet, please rate it in iTunes if you liked it. I’ll see you here next Wednesday. We will be talking about the new personality you get when you speak a foreign language. Happy learning. Take care! Stay fearless and say it out loud. Bye!