Difficult Words: Few and Little

The baby has little hair.

Few dan little mengandung arti ‘sedikit’

few – fewer – the fewest, untuk Countable noun

few students/children/books

little – less – the least, untuk Uncountable noun

little sugar/rice/time

There were few students absent from class yesterday.

Few people who are willing to study English hard.

I had little time to finish the report yesterday.

She needs little sugar to make a cup of tea.

few/little bernuansa ‘negatif’ karena terlalu sedikit.

a few/ a little bernuansa ‘positif’ karena walaupun sedikit, toh masih ada

(-) Jack has lived here for a long time but he just has few friends.

(+) Bram has just lived here for two weeks but he has already had a few friends.

Practice

1. He spends (few, little) time on his English.

2. John has (few, little) money but he still has (few, a few) friends.

3. She made (few, little) mistakes on her examinations.

4. He has (many, much) money but (few, little) friends.

5. A man whom people cannot trust will have (a few, few) friends.

Answer

1. little

2. little, a few

3. few

4. much, few

5. few