A few, a little, some

Question

I'm rather confused on when to use "a few", "a little" and "some".   Could someone differentiate these three to me and give sample sentences.  Thank you for your help!

Andrei · Accepted Answer

I have little money means I am broke today. I don't have money at all to do or buy something.

I have a little money means that I am not broke today. There is some money in my wallet or in the bank.

I find it is difficult to explain the very basic word. There is no way to explain it; just understand the word.

I have a lot of money means to a certain extent I am rich. I got thousands of dollars in my account.

If I don't have thousands of dollars in my account, I would use the words 'some money'. Bill Gates could always say that he has a lot of money.
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There are a few people at the party means something like 20 to 30 people were in the party.

If there were less than 10 people, I would write there are few people at the party.

{You will find these basic words in a grammar. Don't you have a access to a grammar?}

PASTEL · Answer

Andrei has mentioned several good examples. I'll just throw in my two cents worth.

(1) a little + uncountable noun
(2) a few + countable noun
(3) some + (un)countable noun

Also noticed that, "I have little money" means "Actually I don't have money;I'm nearly broke."

"I have few friends in town" means "I almost don't have any friends in town."

Pastel

Mandrake · Answer

A few:

Used in front of a noun. Used to indicate you are talking about a small number of things. It is not used when talking about a small amount of something.

For Example:

Would you like a few more milk in your coffee. (This is a wrong sentence)

For example:

There are a few things I'd like to talk to you about.
There may be a few copies left.

A few can also be used as a pronoun:

For example:

Most people stay in Japan for about a year. A few stay longer.

Mandrake · Answer

A little:

Used as an adverb. After a verb or in front of an adjective or another adverb. It is used to indicate a small degree.

For example:

Would you like a little more milk?
Would you like a little black dog?
Would you like this a little better?

It can be used in front of nouns and as a pronoun also.

Mandrake · Answer

Some;

Used as a determiner to talk about a number of people or things.

For example:

Some people.
Some chairs.
I drank some coffee this morning.

Some friends.
Some cookies.

Used as a quantifier to talk about things belonging to a group.

For example:

...some of the things we talked about were not true.
...I've read some of the Harry Potter stories.
...some of my friends are studying English.

Used as a pronoun.

For example:

Do you have enough money?
No, I'll get some from the bank.

In a negative sentence:

For example:

I don't have some money (is wrong)
I don't have any money. (is correct)

Mandrake · Answer

One more thing is that you could invest in a good dictionary of English usage, as most nowadays are based on some kind of corpus of words and therefore provide farily good examples and frequently occuring patterns of speech samples to illustrate the grammar points in usage.

A few, a little, some

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