Words for expressing quantity (quantifiers) are an important part of English grammar. Their choice depends on the noun they describe.
We use a few with countable nouns in the plural. For example:
A few people came to the party.
We use a little in English with uncountable nouns. For example:
There's a little coffee left, if you would like some.
We can also use few and little (without 'a') to indicate that something is in significantly smaller quantity. For example:
There's little point in calling (= there's not much point calling).
There were few people at the concert.
'A few' means more in quantity than 'few' and 'a little' is more in quantity than 'little'. For example:
Few people understand = not many people understand;
A few people understand = some people understand.
In conversational English, we can say not many or just only a few instead of 'few' and only a little or not much instead of 'little'. For example:
'Not many people came to the party.' Or 'Only a few people came to the party.'
'There was only a little petrol left in the car.' Or 'There wasn't much petrol left in the car.'
Comparatives
The comparative form of few is fewer, and of little is less.
We use 'fewer' for countable nouns in the plural and 'less' for uncountable nouns. For example:
There are fewer people here than last year.
He drinks less coffee than I do.
The sentence 'There are less people here than last year' is grammatically incorrect, since 'people' is a countable noun in the plural.
More articles about English grammar
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