Little,a little,few,a few

We usea littlewith singular uncountable nouns.We usea fewwith plural countable nouns:

Mary said nothing, but she drank some tea and atea littlebread.

We stayeda fewdays in Florence and visited the museums.

We uselittlewith uncountable nouns. We usefewwith plural countable nouns. They are used in formal contexts:

I’m not very happy about it but I suppose I havelittlechoice.

Fewcities anywhere in Europe can match the cultural richness of Berlin.

[talking about a period of history]

At that timefewpeople travelled who didn’t have to.

We can use (a)littleand (a)fewas pronouns. We can use them to substitute for a noun when it is obvious from the context:

After that, she began to tell thema littleabout her life in Scotland, particularly her life with the Rosenblooms.

Don’t take all the strawberries. Just havea few.(Just have a few strawberries.)

Littleandfeware not very common without a noun. We use them in formal contexts:

Littleis known about his upbringing and education.

Fewwould be in favour of police officers carrying weapons.

We useofwith(a) littleand(a) fewwhen they come before articles (a/an, the), demonstratives (this, that), possessives (my, your) or pronouns (him, them):

Put the flour into a bowl, blend witha little ofthe milk, beat in the egg yolks, then the sugar and the rest of the milk.

A few ofhis films were seen abroad.

We usea littleas an adverb of degree. It is more formal thana bit:

He smiled justa little.

Her hands were shakinga little.

We usea littlebefore adjectives and adverbs to modify them. It is more formal thana bit:

She seemed to be gettinga littlebetter.

What you need isa littlemore romance.

We often usea littlewithbit:

I find thata littlebit hard to believe.

We uselittleas an adjective to mean ‘small’:

‘You’re going to have alittlebaby brother, Martha,’ her mother told her one day.

I know alittlerestaurant not far from here.