in a few months or in few months? grammar.

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Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
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Nov 13, 2002
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British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
It depends. Normally, we would say 'a few'. When we use 'few' without the article, we want to give a negative idea:
I have a few friends = not a large number, but enough
I have few friends = not enough and I am lonely
;-)
 

abcd1234

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2006
thank you very much tdol.

i wish i was born on an english speaking country so there is no
need for me to study this.

to tell you the truth i spent lots of thousands of hours just trying to
fix my blunder grammars.

if hope you guys (true english speaking people) don't get tired and
don't stop helping others, specially us (non english speaking people).

are you a teacher tdol?
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
Rest assured, abcd, that we don't get bored. If we did, we wouldn't have started the site. The question you asked, though one I have seen many times, actually involves fairly complex issues for learners from many backgrounds- few has a plural meaning, but can take a singular article or not, and the difference is in the meaning, not the number. For a learner from a language that doesn't have articles or singular/plural, which is the case in many, though I don't know if it is so in yours, this is not an easy issue. I do enjoy trying to answer the questions here and am always interested in the sheer diversity of issues raised. As the forum is driven by learners, who dictate the contents and direction by asking questions, I find it fascinating to see what really causes problems, and answering on the forum has certainly helped in my classroom teaching.

I am also learning an Asian language at the moment, so I know something of the difficulties you find when faced with a language that is very different from your own. ;-)
 
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