few 和 a few 雖然只差一個 a, 但意思幾乎完全相反。
比如:I have a few friends in the government. (我在政府裡認識些朋友),也就是我「朝中有人」,別人可能會對你投來羨慕的目光。
但如果你說:I have few friends in the government. 那就說明你在政府裡不認識什麼人。
所以,few 就是「很少,幾乎沒有」,而 a few 則表示「有一些」,它們都是形容詞,修飾可數名詞(countable nouns)。再舉兩例:
There are a few things I need to buy.
我得買些東西。
There are few things I need to buy.
我不需要買什麼東西。
順便補充一下,quite a few 表示「很多」,比如:
There are quite a few things I need to buy.
我需要買很多東西。
另外,再看看 a little 和 little,其實用法跟 a few 和 few 類似。區別就在於 a little 和 little 只能修飾「不可數名詞」(uncountable nouns)。舉例:
There is a little water in the bottle.
瓶子裡還有一些水。
There is little water in the bottle.
瓶子裡幾乎沒水了。
同理,quite a little 表示「很多」,「大量」,也用來修飾不可數名詞,比如:
There is quite a little water in the bottle.
瓶子裡還有大量的水。