Little artinya sedikit dan diletakkan sebelum kata benda tidak dapat dihitung (uncountable nouns):
- There is little water left, so drink only what you must.
(Tinggal sedikit airnya, jadi minumlah seperlunya saja) - I have little reason to think they will help.
(Kecil kemungkinannya kalau mereka mau menolong kita)
Few digunakan dengan kata benda jamak:
- There are few men who are capable of doing it.
(Ada beberapa pria yang mampu melakukannya) - I know few places that I could recommend to you.
(Saya tahu beberapa tempat yang saya rekomendasikan kepada Anda)
Little dan few mengandung arti negatif:
- I have little reason to think they will help. (Artinya Saya ingin mencari alasan-alasan lainnya, tapi sayangnya saya tidak menemukannya).
- I know few places that I could recommend to you. (Artinya Saya ingin merekomendasikan tempat-tempat lainnya, tapi sayang saya tidak menemukan tempat lainnya yang dapat direkomendasikan).
Little dan few adalah bentuk formal, sedangkan untuk membuatnya tidak formal, cukup tambahkan not much dan not many:
- I don’t have much reason to think they will help.
- I don’t know many places that I could recommend to you.
Kalau kita memakai article a sebelum little dan few, maka mengandung arti positif, sama dengan some:
- We’ve got a little bread = We’ve got some bread.
- We’ve got a few biscuits = We’ve got some biscuits.
Sebelum Pronoun atau Determiner, (a) little of dan (a) few of digunakan:
- Take a little of this and a little of that.
- Sorry, but we only have a little of it.
- Take a few of these and a few of those.
- Sorry, but we only have a few of them.
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