The meaning of FEW is not many persons or things. How to use few in a sentence.
(A) little and (a) few are quantifiers meaning ‘some’. Little and few have negative meanings. We use them to mean ‘not as much as may be expected or wished for’. …
Few and a few are both used in front of nouns, but they do not have the same meaning. You use a few simply to show that you are talking about a small number of people or things. I'm having a dinner party for a few close friends. Here are a few ideas that might help you.
few (comparative fewer or less, superlative fewest or least) There are a few cars (=some, but a relatively small number) in the street. Quite a few people (=a significant number) were pleasantly surprised. I think he's had a few drinks. (This usage is likely ironic.) The few cheapest hotels I could find are the farthest too.
The few means a small set of people considered as separate from the majority, especially because they share a particular opportunity or quality that the others do not have.
The Few surname appeared 2,292 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Few.
Do you know how to use a few, few, very little and a bit of? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.
Few is a word for a small, non-specific number. A few is somewhere between a couple and a whole bunch. When you say you're going to have a few fries, you'd better not eat the whole order — a few is a tiny number. It takes more than a few people to play basketball, though they could probably play two-on-two.