Little / Few

source : a few and a little

학교 다닐 때 배운 걸로 대충 이해는 하고 있었지만 뭔가 찜찜했던 부분. 오늘 긁었다.

a little / little : describing amounts for noncount nouns (셀 수 없는 명사의 양을 표현)
a little : some ~ (약간)
little : no extra ~ (거의 없는)

We have a little food in the fridge. 냉장고에 먹을 게 좀 있다.
= We have some food.
We have little food in the fridge. 냉장고에 먹을 게 거의 없다.
= There isn't very much food.

He has very little information. 그는 정보가 거의 없다.
There was very little traffic this morning. 오늘 아침 도로는 차가 거의 없었다.
I have very little interest in doing that. 나 그 일 하는 거 관심 전혀 없어.




a few / few : describing amounts for count nouns (셀 수 있는 명사의 양을 표현)
a few : 3~4 (2 또는 4도 가능하지만 일반적으로)
few : a small amount (상황에 따라 양이 다르다)

A few people came to the party.
= There were three people there. 파티에 세 명 왔다.
Few people came to the party. (Fifty people were expected. Only ten showed up.)
= There were very few people there. (원래 50명 오기로 되있었는데 10명 왔으니) 파티에 사람들이 정말 조금 왔다.

We had a few problems with the computer. 컴퓨터에 문제가 약간 있다.
(= the situation was not good)
We had few problems with the computer. 컴퓨터에 별 문제가 없다.
(= the situation was good or the problems were not serious)