What Is The Difference Between 'A Few' And 'Few', 'A Little' And 'Little' And 'Little' And 'Few'?

With both little and few, the "a" gives the sentence a more positive meaning. For example, if you say, "I have a few friends" it suggests that you are quite happy with this, ie you feel you have enough friends. If you say "I have few friends," however, the implication is that you feel rather lonely/ you'd like more friends.

Little works the same way, only with uncountable (ie, non-plural) nouns: "a little money" has a positive sound, while "little money" is not enough.

(By the way, if you add ONLY, "a little/ a few" will then lose their positive meaning. "Only a few friends/ only a little money" again suggests that you need more.)

As mentioned, the difference between "little" and "few" is purely grammatical. They both mean "not a lot", but "few" applies only to plural forms (ie when you have more than one of something) apples, pens, books etc. "Little" applies to things you can't count, like time, happiness etc. Hope this helps.

'All the words 'Little', 'A little', 'Few', 'A Few' are called adjectives. Adjectives are the words that are used with a noun to add something for its meaning. The words described above are often confused. In fact there is a difference between them illustrated below:
'Few' is used with nouns that are countable in numbers whereas 'Little' is used with nouns that are not countable in numbers.


Little:
         It means hardly any. Therefore it has negative meaning.
For example:
• There is little hope of our team's victory now.
• He showed little concern for his niece.
• He showed little interest in Chemistry.

A little:
          It means some enough though not much. Therefore it has positive meaning.
For example:
• A little planning could have saved the situation.
• A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
• There is a little hope of his recovery from the disease.
Few:
       It means not many, hardly any. So, therefore it has negative meaning.
For example:
• Few people speak the truth today.
• Few women in our society can keep a secret.

A Few:
It means 'some' as opposed to 'none'. Therefore it has positive meaning.
For Example:
• A few words spoken in polite will convince the lord.
• A few children can speak English correctly in our society.