Haytham writes:
I’d like to know the difference between few and a few.
Very good question! "Few" comes from an Old English word, feawe, meaning "little." The word has several different meanings. If I say
Few students attended the lecture
—I'm saying not very many students were there, although a lot of students had the chance. If I say
A few students attended the lecture
—I'm saying that at least some students were there. It's a more positive description.
We can also use "few" to mean "many." If I write
Quite a few students attended the lecture
—I'm very pleased with the number who came to the lecture.
Here is a usage problem with ""fewer": We need it to describe "countable" items. For example,
Fewer students attended the lecture today than last week.
We have fewer complaints than we had last year.
We are selling fewer newspapers than usual.
Students, complaints, and newspapers are all countable. For these we should always use "fewer."
But for "non-count" nouns, we should use "less":
The storm brought less rain than predicted. (You can't count "rain.")
This recipe requires less sugar. (You can't count "sugar.")
She had less interest in poetry than in fiction. (You can't count "interest.")
But for some reason, many English speakers are ignoring this distinction:
Less students attended the lecture.
We have less complaints than last year.
We're selling less newspapers.
This is unfortunate, because the language is more precise when we make a distinction between "count" and "non-count" nouns.
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