虽然都表示“少”,但few, a few是可数的, little, a little是不可数的。a few, a little含肯定意味,few, little含否定意味。
1. few 与 little 作形容词用,都表示“几乎没有”,相当于一个否定词。具体区别:
(1) few 后面跟复数可数名词。 e.g. few books few students
(2) little 后面跟单数不可数名词。 e.g. little water little food
e.g. He has few friends. 他没有几个朋友。
They has little money. 他们没有什麽钱
2. a few 与 a little 都表示肯定的意思,指“有一点,有一些”。具体区别:
(1) a few 后加可数名词复数
(2)a little 后加不可数名词单数。
e.g. I'm going to buy a few bananas.
I can speak only a little Chinese.
3. a little 与 little 也可以用作副词, 表示“有点”“稍稍” 表示“很少”
e.g. ----Can you speak English?
----Yes, but only a little.
This book is a little more difficult than that one.
( 可修饰形容词比较级)
She slept little last night. 昨天晚上,她没有怎么睡觉。
few/a few之间的区别
few 和 a few 虽然只差一个 a, 但意思几乎完全相反。比如:I have a few friends in the government. (我在政府里认识些朋友),也就是我“上面有人”。但如果你说:I have few friends in the government. 那就说明你在政府里不认识什么人。
所以,few 就是“很少,几乎没有”,而 a few 则表示“有一些”,它们都是形容词,修饰可数名词(countable nouns)。
例句:
(1)There are a few things I need to buy.
我得买些东西。
(2)There are few things I need to buy.
我不需要买什么东西。
再补充学习一下,quite a few 表示“很多”。
例句:There are quite a few things I need to buy.
我需要买很多东西。
little/a little之间的区别
再看看 a little 和 little,其实用法跟 a few 和 few 类似。区别就在于 a little 和 little 只能修饰“不可数名词”(uncountable nouns)。
例句:
(1)There is a little water in the bottle.
瓶子里还有一些水。
(2)There is little water in the bottle.
瓶子里几乎没水了。
同理,quite a little 表示“很多”,“大量”,也用来修饰不可数名词,比如:
There is quite a little water in the bottle.
瓶子里还有大量的水。