Since I trust my friend's feeling and knowledge of English more than mine, I thought I'd better ask native speakers whether this difference between some and a few (or, by the same token, between some and few) really exists or it is one of those things taught in ESL classes but not applied in the 'real world. My friend agreed with me on the difference between few and a few, but he said that I was being too picky about some. I told him that, according to what I have been taught, few carries a negative meaning (not enough), a few a positive one (more than enough) and some is neutral. I told him that it was grammatically fine, too, and that I would have made my choice depending on the meaning I wanted to convey. ' in formal (academic) English.Īfter I replied that I would, my friend went on saying: 'Why wouldn't you write 'I am now going to analyze some dialogues.'?' None of the music they played attracted me.Yesterday, I was asked whether I'd write the following sentence: 'I am now going to analyze a few dialogues. Luckily, none of the soldiers were killed. The other news is that they are getting married in June.Īll students must take a placement test at the beginning of the course. stocks into a bear market, investors see few signs suggesting equities have hit bottom, as persistent worries over surging inflation and an aggressive. Video source: Beauty and the Beast - Be Our Guest High Quality Video length: 3 minutes 31 seconds. Despite a crushing selloff that pushed U.S. Knowing the kidney stones chemical composition has a great importance in treating the disease and especially in reducing its recurrence rate. The word budget means an amount of money we have available to spend. Scene summary: Belle is entertained by animated objects that prepare her dinner while she watches them dance. One in every 20 people develops kidney stones at some point in their life. There are plenty of tables and chairs in the room.Ī number of questions arose at the meeting. There are lots of tables and chairs in the room. Master chef Gualtiero Marchesi is talking about one of the most famous northern Italian recipes, risotto alla milanese, and the symbolic meaning of the saffron. There are a lot of tables and chairs in the room. Which candy bar has the most sugar in it? Without the article a, few emphasizes a small number of something. There is not much hope that he will survive. Grammar Few is a quantifier used with plural countable nouns. More people came to the concert than expected. There were not many people at the concert. Tim should spend less time on the computer. There is a little hope that he will survive. There is little hope that he will survive.

This medicine has the fewest side effects. I was just talking to some guy from school.Īny sensible person would have done the same. I heard an interesting story at the office yesterday. Countable nouns take a singular or plural form depending on the determiner which precedes them: Singular countable nouns Some determiners can only be used with countable or uncountable nouns, while others can be used with both.

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Determiners precede nouns and show what kind of reference the noun has. Some, any, much many, a lot (of), a few, a little.

Some fews of