few
/fjuː
/- Now returned to her, we hoped it would help answer a few questions about the old boy.
- Well buy a few of them and stick your chocolate in that, it won't get warmer or go dead cold.
- Not as simple or elegant as the original, but a few of the additions are pretty good.
- Sport is full of unusual people of high ability, but very few of them are film stars.
- His education, he told me, was unlikely to get him a decent job and he had few friends.
- Try to be nice about it though and offer them a can of beer or you will make few friends.
- We should concentrate on peace and health for all before we embark on glory for the few.
- Emancipation is not a right that can be curtailed in favour of the interests of the few.
- The world belongs to the few, not to the many, and least of all to all.
- Yes, and I'm sure the Few fought the Battle of Britain so that chinless little Nazis could fight elections in this country.
- He read The Few: Summer 1940, the Battle of Britain by Philip Kaplan and Richard Collier.
Usage
Fewer versus less: strictly speaking, the rule is that fewer, the comparative form of few, is used with words denoting people or countable things (fewer members; fewer books). Less, on the other hand, is used with mass nouns, denoting things which cannot be counted (less money; less bother). It is regarded as incorrect in standard English to use less with count nouns, as in less people or less words, although this is one of the most widespread errors made by native speakers. It is not so obvious which word should be used with than. Less is normally used with numerals (a score of less than 100) and with expressions of measurement or time (less than two weeks; less than four miles away), but fewer is used if the things denoted by the number are seen as individual items or units (there were fewer than ten contestants).
Phrases
every few
few and far between
a good few
have a few
no fewer than
not a few
quite a few
some few
Origin
Old English fēawe, fēawa, of Germanic origin; related to Old High German fao, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin paucus and Greek pauros 'small'.
The ancient root of few is shared by Latin paucus ‘small’, which gives us the English word paucity (Late Middle English). The name the Few for the RAF pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain in 1940 comes from a speech by Winston Churchill in August of that year: ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’
Rhymes
- put something across
- put something aside
- put something away
- put something back
- put something behind one
- put something by
- put something down
- put something down to
- put something forward
- put something in/into
- put something into operation
- put something into someone's head
- put something into words
- put something off
- put something on
- put something on the long finger
- put something out
- put something out to tender
- put something over
- put something through
- put something to
- put something to bed
- put something together
- put something to good use
- put something to sleep