Question

[abomody]

I wonder if anyone could tell me the difference between: few and a few.

Thank you for being helpful.

[liuchunsheng123456]

I wonder if anyone could tell me the difference between: few and a few.

Thank you for being helpful.
Both two modify countable noun . But two have different meaning and feeling , few means small number and on many occasions have the feeling of displeasant ,for example "one of my few bad habits ."A few is just opposite .

[liuchunsheng123456]

Both two modify countable noun . But two have different meaning and feeling , few means small number and on many occasions have the feeling of displeasant ,for example "one of my few bad habits ."A few is just opposite .
A few means some .
That is just my piece of advice, Do you agree with me ?
If not ,i wait for your answer,sincerely .:D

[Rusty]

A few means some .
That is just my piece of advice, Do you agree with me ?
If not ,i wait for your answer,sincerely .:D Yes, that's right. Few emphasizes what you don't have. A few emphasizes what you do have.

[abomody]

Thank you very much for all of those who tried to help with this issue. I'm really grateful to you.

[JRiddy]

You should also know that "quite a few" means the same thing as "quite a lot," which might seem strange.

Example:

Johnny has 2 books.
Sarah has 20 books.
Michael has 200 books.

"Johnny has few books." (= "Johnny does not have very many books.")
"Sarah has a few books." (= "Sarah has a reasonable number of books.")
"Michael has quite a few books." (= "Michael has many/a lot of books.")

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English speakers are quite fond of understatement. In fact, we English speakers are so fond of it that many understated expressions become the norm. That is what happened with "quite a few." Speakers, at one time, used "quite a few" in a slightly funny way, saying that someone had only a few, but meaning that he had many. This happened so much that "quite a few" came to mean "quite a lot" in every situation, with no humor involved.