Few & A few: What's the difference - English In A Minute

Few & A few: What's the difference - English In A Minute

Welcome everyone.

Today we're going to look at
the difference between

'few' and 'a few'.

Have a look at these
two sentences.

Which sentence has
a more negative feeling?

Number 1.
I have few friends.

Number 2. I have a few friends
who live in London.

It was sentence number one, right?

When we use 'few', we're saying
that the total number

of something is not as many
as we would like

- that the number is small.

Here, I'm telling you that
I don't have many friends.

When we use 'a few',

we're not talking about
the total number,

but a category of something.

It has a similar meaning
to 'some'.

Here, I'm telling you that
some of my friends live in London.

Just
remember,

we always use this with
countable nouns only,

so please
be careful.

See you next time!