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Should it be FEWER, or LESS? And do you say A FEW or A LITTLE? Even native English speakers make mistakes with this issue. In this English grammar lesson I’ll show how the answer has a lot to do with countable and uncountable nouns. In some cases it also depends on the meaning you want to convey. I’ll give example sentences to illustrate how to use the different options, and after watching this video there’s MORE, because you can test out your knowledge in the quiz.

More grammar videos from Gill:
WHO, WHOM, WHOSE, WHO'S
Active & Passive Voice

In this lesson:
0:00 few, little, a few, a little, fewer, less, more
0:57 Countable or Uncountable?
2:21 few
3:01 little
3:49 a few
4:59 a little
5:43 fewer
6:06 "less" or "fewer"?
7:43 less
8:10 more

TRANSCRIPT:
Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on a set of words that go with countable and uncountable nouns. People sometimes get confused about this. Even native speakers of English make mistakes with some of these words, so I have it all explained here on the board with some example sentences to show what... What to use in which example. Okay?

So, the words are on the left-hand side there in red, so "few", "little", "a few", "a little", "fewer", "less", and "more". Okay? So... And you can see that sometimes they're used with a countable noun when you can have a plural. So, if it's countable, like "book" and "books", it's countable. There can be 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 100. They're countable nouns. So, "books" is a... "Book" and "books" is a countable noun, so "few" is used with books.

And then uncountable nouns are when you use a singular to refer to that noun, like with "wine", "wine", "bread", "rice", "water", "beer", those sorts of words which are uncountable because they're used in the singular. "Sugar", "salt", all of those different things, they're used in the singular, but there can be a large quantity of it, but it's one thing, and it's uncountable because it's used in the singular only. Okay. So, it will vary according to whether the noun you're using is a countable noun or an uncountable noun. So, let's just have a look at each example to see how that works out in practice.

So, with the word "few", which means not... Not very many. Okay? So, we've sold so many books... Say we have a bookshop, we've sold so many books, we have few left, meaning few books. We don't have many books left. We don't have a lot of books left. So, we've sold so many books, we have few left. Okay. And then looking at an uncountable with "wine". We've drunk so much wine, there's little left. Say you have a bottle of wine and you've been topping up people's glasses with it, and there's little left in the bottle, for example. We've drunk so much wine, there's little... Little of it left. There's little wine left, meaning not much wine left. Okay. There's only a little amount. Right?

And then, a bit confusingly, we've had "few" on its own, but here we have "a few". Okay? And we're back to "countable" again. And there are... And we're back to the bookshop again. There are "a few" books left in the shop. Just a few, a small number. And it's interesting that it sounds more positive if you use "a few". If you say, "Oh, we have few left. Oh, dear. We have few left." It sounds rather negative and worried. You sound a bit worried if you say, "Oh, we have few left now." But if you say, "We have a few left. We have a few left." It sounds a bit more positive and optimistic. So, that's the different effect between "few" and "a few". So, there are a few books left in the shop, so we can still sell those. So, more positive than "we have few left", "there are a few left". Okay?

And also, the same happens with "little" and "a little". So, "a little" is again uncountable. "There's a little wine left. There's a little bit of wine left in the bottle. There's a little wine left." Whereas this one, "We've drunk so much wine, there's little left now. Oh, dear." It's nearly gone. It sounds more negative. But here, "There's a little wine left in the bottle. Would you like the last drop?" So, it's more positive sounding, I think. But again, it's uncountable with "wine". So, "a little wine left". Okay?

Now, "fewer" is again like "few" used with a countable noun. So, we're looking at books again. So, if people read on the internet, they will buy fewer books. Okay? A lot of people, including native English speakers, make a mistake with this, and they say they will buy less books, which is... Strictly speaking, it's incorrect. It's "fewer books", not "less books", because "less" goes with an uncountable noun. "Less wine". "Fewer" goes with a countable noun, like "books" in the plural. "Fewer books". So, if you see the noun is in the plural, I think you'll find that "fewer" is the correct word to go with it. […]

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