![]() ![]() Here is the quiz in image form if you wish to share it on social media. I’m still waiting for _ information before I make the booking.There are _ things that scare me in life, but spiders creep me out.Do you have any plans later? I’m thinking of meeting _ friends for a drink.There are _ things that we need to discuss later.Peter is having a dinner party this Friday but he is worried that _ people will turn up for it.□□□įill in the blanks with the correct answer (few/a few/some): You can post your answers below and I will put the correct answers at the bottom of this page. Let’s have a test to see if you have understood the difference between few vs a few. We are trying to say that “many” people believe one thing but that “some” believe the other. I picked “some” because it did not seem important to emphasize the lack of people who disagreed. While many feel men and women have equal capabilities at work, there are a few who seem to disagree. The word “many” agrees with “few” but this is not reflected in the cohesive device, “while.” This sentence needs to show the difference between the two parts. Grammatically, it seems fine, but logically it is suspicious. While many feel men and women have equal capabilities at work, there are few who seem to disagree.Let’s go back to the first example and see why my student made a mistake: In both cases, we mean “almost nobody.” Few vs A Few vs Some When we say “few people” we are emphasizing the fact that almost nobody is doing this thing:įew people disagree with life sentences for murderers.įew people have ever thought about living on Mercury. It really highlights the fact that there were not many guests. In the second example, it might be the same number, but the emphasis is on almost nobody. Maybe it was two or three or four people. In the first example, we know that some people came. A few people came to his birthday partyĢ. This essay will explore almost none of the reasons for traffic congestion in major cities. I know, it’s really confusing! When we say “few,” we are emphasizing the fact that there are not many, but when we say “a few” we are emphasizing the fact that there are some – in other words, it is more than zero. This essay will explore a few of the reasons for traffic congestion in major cities.īasically, “few” and “a few” have completely different meanings. This essay will explore few of the reasons for traffic congestion in major cities. I see it several times every week when marking essays for my IELTS writing correction service. Maybe you already knew the difference between “a few” and “some,” but many people make the following mistake. These include: cheese, information, garbage, advice, water, equipment, salt. INCORRECT: We’ll pack a few bread for the picnic.ĬORRECT: We’ll pack some bread for the picnic.Īs you can see, we do not use “a few” for uncountable nouns. Look at the following sentences:ĬORRECT: We’ll pack a few sandwiches for the picnic.ĬORRECT: We’ll pack some sandwiches for the picnic. There is also a grammatical difference in how we use these words. In the second, there may be slightly more. Therefore, in the first sentence above, the listener would imagine that there are not many presentations. When we say “some,” it is the same but there is no emphasis. When we say “a few,” it places emphasis on the fact that there are not many. I have to give some presentations next week. I have to give a few presentations next week. ![]() ![]() You can see the difference here: A Few vs Someįirst of all, let’s look at the difference between “a few” and “some.” Essentially, “a few” and “some” have the same meaning. I used to give one page of notes but now those notes are structured to provide feedback related to the four sections of the IELTS marking rubric: Task Response / Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. It is essentially the same except that the second page of my feedback is more detailed. In this article, I’m going to explain the difference between “few” and “some” and also the more subtle difference between “few” and “a few.”īut first, I want to let you know that I have changed the format of my writing correction service slightly. While many feel men and women have equal capabilities at work, there are some who seem to disagree. I changed “few” to “some” to make the following sentence: While many feel men and women have equal capabilities at work, there are few who seem to disagree. I was marking some IELTS essays this morning when I came across a mistake that one of my students had made. ![]()
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