few
part of speech
adjective, determiner, pronoun (few, fewer, fewest; a few)
meaning for a pupil
1) Few means not many: few people came. tree →
2) «A few» means a small number, some: I have a few sweets. tree →
3) Fewer means a smaller number than another; fewest means the smallest number of all. tree →
sense in the lessons
in «how many fewer … than» the difference between two amounts (subtract the smaller from the bigger); «4 fewer than 11» = 11 − 4; in everyday life «a few minutes», «quite a few» (many); in science «few animals live in the desert»
examples
- A box has 20 balloons and a bag has 19 balloons. How many fewer balloons are in the bag than in the box? tree →
- Tom has 4 fewer pens than Lisa. Lisa has 11 pens. tree →
- Ann has a few stamps. tree →
- Wait a few minutes, please. tree →
- Few people swim in the sea in winter. tree →
- Our team scored fewer goals than theirs. tree →
- Which class has the fewest books? tree →
- I have a few friends on my street. tree →
- In a few minutes they were ready. tree →
note
«fewer … than» asks for a difference: subtract the smaller from the bigger. Trap: «Tom has 4 fewer than Lisa» with Lisa's amount given asks for Tom's: subtract 4 from Lisa's. «Few» goes with things you can count (few apples); «little» and «less» with things you cannot count (little water). «Few» sounds sad (not enough); «a few» sounds neutral (some).
In the corpora
- A parent sleeping on the sofa for a few nights may mean a disagreement, or something simple like snoring or a bad back.
- Some relatives get on, some do not, and a few stop speaking for years.
- "We're expecting" means a baby is growing inside Mum and will be born in a few months.
- Parents often make a shortlist of names, and the name must be registered officially within a few weeks of the birth.
- A few quiet minutes, a hug, or a simple «Are you OK?» often help most.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «few» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.