Quantifiers

A few and few, a little and little

These expressions show the speaker's attitude towards the quantity he/she is referring to.

A few (for countable nouns) and a little (for uncountable nouns)describe the quantity in a positive way:
* "I've got a few friends" (= maybe not many, but enough)
* "I've got a little money" (= I've got enough to live on)

Few and little describe thequantity in a negative way:
* Few people visited him in hospital (= he had almost no visitors)
* He had little money (= almost no money)
Graded Quantifiers

They are like comparatives andhold a relative position on a scale of increase or decrease.
 
INCREASE (0% to 100%) |


With plural countable nouns: |
many | more | most |


With uncountable nouns: |
much | more |most |
| | |
DECREASE (100% to 0%) |


With plural countable nouns: |
few | fewer | fewest |


With uncountable nouns: |
little | less | least |

 Examples:

·       There are many people in Poland, more in India, but the most people live in China.

·        Much time and money is spent on education, more on health services but the most is spent on nationaldefense.

·        Few rivers in Europe aren’t polluted.

·        Fewer people die young now than in the nineteenth century.

·        The country with the fewest people per square kilometre mustbe Australia.

·        Scientists have little hope of finding a complete cure for cancer before 2010.

·        She had less time to study than I did but had better results.

·        Givethat dog the least opportunity and it will bite you.

Quantifiers with countable and uncountable nouns

Some adjectives and adjectival phrases can only go with uncountable nouns (salt, rice, money,advice), and some can only go with countable nouns (friends, bags, people). The words in the middle column can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.
 
With Uncountable Nouns | With...