A Little / A few or Little / Few

It's a difference if you use a little / a few or little / few. Without the article, the words have a limiting or negative meaning.  a little = some little = hardly any
Example: I need a little money. - I need some money. I need little money. - I need hardly any money.

a few = some few = hardly any

Example: A few friends visited me. - Some friends visited me. Few friends visited me. - Hardly any friends visited me.

Without the article, little / few sound rather formal. That's why we don't use them very often in everyday English. A negative sentence with much / many is more common here.

Example: I need little money. = I do not need much money. Few friends visited me. = Not many friends visited me.

Decide whether you have to use a little or a few. 1. 1.Could I have _______________ sugar for my tea, please? 2. 2.If you want to make pancakes, you need _______________ eggs and ______________ flour. 3. 3.Have you got _________________ minutes? I need to talk to you. 4. 4.When I am on holiday, I always write __________________ lines home. 5. 5.I have ___________________ headache. 6. 6.Jane has invited _________________boys to her party. 7. 7.There is still _________________ work to do. 8. 8.They sang __________________ songs. 9. 9.Would you like __________________ more rice? 10. 1.There will be __________________ rain this week. 11. 2.________________ friends are coming over tonight. 12. 3.I need ________________sleep. 13. 4.Could you buy ________________bottles of water for me? 14. 5.My parents give me ________________ pocket money every week. 15. 6.All we need is ________________luck. 16. 7.I would like to eat ________________ biscuits now. 17. 8.There is still ________________ bread left. 18. 9.My friend knows ________________ English poems. 19. 10.There are ________________ birthdays to celebrate this month.

Decide whether you have to use little or few.

1.We had ____________ snow last winter. 2. ____________ people were interested in the exhibition. 3.I speak ____________ French. 4.There are ____________ gentlemen nowadays. 5.She has ____________ relatives. 6.There is ____________ water in the pond. 7.The professor spends ____________ time in company. 8.We have ____________ knowledge of this phenomenon. 9.There are ____________ mushrooms in my mushroom soup. 10. ____________ animals can survive in the desert.

Put in like or as:

1. Don't take my advice if you don't want to. You can do _____________ you like. 2. You waste too much time doing things _______________ sitting in cafes all day. 3. I wish I had a car ____________________ yours. 4. There's no need to change your clothes. You can go out ______________ you are. 5. My neighbour's house is full of interesting things. It's ____________ a museum. 6. I think I prefered this room_____________ it was, before we decorated it. 7. When we asked Sue to help us, she agreed immediately, ____________ I knew she would. 8. Sharon has been working _______________ a waitress for the last two months. 9. While we were on holiday, we spent most of our time doing energetic things ___________ sailing, water skiing and swimming. 10. You're different from the other people I know. I don't know anyone _____________ you. 11. We don t need all the bedrooms in the house, so we use one of them ___________a study. 12. ______________ her father, Catherine has a very good voice. 13. The news that Sue and Jim were getting married came ____________ a complete surprise to me. 14. At the moment I've got a temporary job in a bookshop. It's OK ____________ a temporary job but I wouldn't like to do it permanently. 15. Your English is very fluent. I wish I could speak ____________ you. 16. Why can't economists see the damage that legislation __________ this one has done in the past decade. 17. Taxes on capital are _______________ taxes on job. 18. The common customs tariff, together with protective measures ______________ the antidumping regulations, are still not sufficient to solve all the union's problems. 19. There are only a few exceptions, notably _________ regard the common agricultural policy. 20. The results obtained have been described ____________ satisfactory. 21. They chose Delhi _______ the host city for the conference on mass production in industrialised countries. 22. He made it clear that he didn't want to end up in a company ___________ the one which he visited last week. 23. They seem unable to react to changes at world level in the same way __________ their competitors. 24. The business students talked about the Lom convention,which many regarded ______________ a model of development cooperation. 25. ...and ___________ a consequence,their raw material is of substantard quality. 26. I think that what he really meant was the shares looked ______________ a promising long term gamble. 27. The whole thing looks _____________ common sense to me! 28. The flow of foreign exchange is regarded nowadays ______________ the principal factor influencing development. 29. It is results _______________ that which are very encouraging especially when you've worked hard. 30. Countries _______________ the ones we visited have been having economic problems lately. 31. He said that the threat of insolvency was ___________ a sentence of immediate hanging ...