few

Etymology
From, from , from , from , from.

Cognate with 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬,, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Also related with 🇨🇬 and, from which latter and ; see these.

Determiner

 * 1)  An indefinite, but usually small, number of.
 * 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.]
 * 1)  Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.
 * I was expecting a big crowd at the party, but very few people (=almost none) turned up.
 * 1)  Obscuring one to two oktas (eighths) of the sky.
 * NOAA definition of the term "few clouds": An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomena aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomena are surface-based, such as fog.
 * 1)  (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.
 * 1)  Obscuring one to two oktas (eighths) of the sky.
 * NOAA definition of the term "few clouds": An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomena aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomena are surface-based, such as fog.
 * 1)  (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.
 * 1)  (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.

Usage notes

 * is used with plural nouns only; its synonymous counterpart is used with uncountable nouns.


 * Although indefinite in nature, a few is usually more than two (two often being referred to as "a couple of"), and less than "several". If the sample population is say between 5 and 20, a few would mean three or four, but no more than this. However, if the population sample size were in the millions, a few could refer to several hundred items. In other words, few in this context means a very very small percentage but far more than the 3 or 4 usually ascribed to it in its use with much much smaller numbers.


 * is grammatically affirmative but semantically negative, and it can license s. For example, anything usually cannot be used in affirmative sentences, but can be used in sentences with.


 * He didn't do anything to help us.
 * *He did anything to help us. (ungrammatical)
 * Few people did anything to help us.
 * *A few people did anything to help us. (ungrammatical, since a few is a different unit of meaning from few and does not license NPIs)


 * Few alone emphasises smallness of number, while a few emphasises some. For example: He's a dull man with few ideas; He's a clever man with a few ideas.

Translations

 * Abkhaz: маҷк
 * Adyghe: макӏэ
 * Albanian:, i fijë
 * Arabic:
 * Egyptian Arabic: قليل, شوية
 * Hijazi Arabic: قَليل, شُوَيَّة
 * Armenian: ,
 * Azerbaijani:
 * Balinese: kikit
 * Bashkir: әҙ, аҙ
 * Belarusian:, , няшма́т, нямно́га
 * Bengali: কম
 * Bulgarian:
 * Burmese:
 * Catalan: ,
 * Chinese:
 * Eastern Min: 少
 * Mandarin: ,
 * Czech:, , jen pár
 * Danish:
 * Dutch:, , een paar
 * Esperanto:
 * Estonian:, vähesed
 * Finnish:, ,
 * French:
 * Friulian: pôc
 * Georgian: ცოტა
 * German:
 * Gothic: 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍃
 * Greek: λίγοι (pl. of ),
 * Ancient: ὀλίγος
 * Guaraní: mbovy
 * Hawaiian: kakaikahi
 * Hebrew: אֲחָדִים
 * Hindi:, ,
 * Hungarian:
 * Icelandic: fáir
 * Ido:
 * Indonesian:
 * Irish: beag,
 * Old Irish: úathad, terc
 * Istriot: puoco
 * Italian:
 * Japanese:
 * Kabardian:
 * Kazakh:
 * Khmer:
 * Korean: ,
 * Kurdish:
 * Central Kurdish: کەم
 * Kyrgyz:
 * Lao: ນ້ອຍ
 * Latgalian: nazcik, kuri nakuri, drupeit
 * Latin: paucus
 * Latvian: nedaudz, daži
 * Lithuanian: nedaug
 * Lombard: ,
 * Macedonian:
 * Malay:
 * Maori: okotahi, ruarua, toru toru, itiiti, kōtahitahi, ngōuruuru, ouou, tokoiti, tokoitiiti
 * Mongolian: хэдэн
 * Norwegian: ,
 * Occitan:
 * Old Turkic: 𐰀𐰕
 * Ottoman Turkish: آز
 * Papiamentu: poko
 * Pashto:
 * Persian: ,
 * Polish: ,
 * Portuguese: ,
 * Romagnol: pöc
 * Romanian:, puțini, puține
 * Romansch: pauc
 * Russian:, ,
 * Sanskrit: ,
 * Scottish Gaelic: beagan,, corra, deannan
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: мало
 * Roman:
 * Sicilian:
 * Sindhi: ٿورا
 * Sinhalese:
 * Slovak:, zopár, niekoľko
 * Slovene: ,
 * Sorbian:
 * Lower Sorbian: mało
 * Spanish:
 * Sundanese: sakedik
 * Swedish:
 * Tajik:
 * Talysh: kam
 * Tarantino: pìcche
 * Tat: kəm
 * Tatar:
 * Telugu: ,
 * Thai:
 * Tocharian B: totka
 * Turkish:
 * Turkmen:
 * Ukrainian:, , небага́то
 * Urdu: کچھ, کم
 * Uzbek:
 * Venetian: puòco, poco
 * Vietnamese:
 * Waray-Waray: gu-ti, di-to
 * Welsh:
 * Yagnobi: кам
 * Yiddish: ווייניק, עטלעכע
 * Zealandic: weinig


 * Arabic:
 * Armenian: ,
 * Bulgarian:
 * Burmese:
 * Catalan: ,
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: ,
 * Czech: ,
 * Dutch:
 * Estonian:
 * Finnish: ,
 * French:
 * Georgian:
 * Greek:
 * Ancient: ὀλίγος
 * Hindi:
 * Icelandic:
 * Indonesian:
 * Irish: beag,
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: ,
 * Khmer:
 * Kurdish:
 * Central Kurdish: کەم, کەمێ
 * Latin:
 * Macedonian:, малку́мина
 * Maori: okotahi, ruarua, toru toru, itiiti, kōtahitahi, ngōuruuru, ouou, tokoiti, tokoitiiti
 * Mongolian:, цөөхөн, цөөн тооны
 * Ngazidja Comorian: shashi
 * Norwegian:
 * Persian:, ,
 * Polish: ,
 * Portuguese: ,
 * Russian:
 * Sanskrit: ,
 * Slovak: nemnohí
 * Spanish: ,
 * Swedish:
 * Turkish:
 * Urdu: کم
 * Vietnamese:
 * Yiddish: ווייניק, אַ פּאָר
 * Zealandic: weinig


 * Finnish:
 * French: ,

Pronoun

 * 1) Few people, few things.
 * Many are called, but few are chosen.

Translations

 * Arabic:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Indonesian:
 * Maori: tokoitiiti, tokoiti
 * Mongolian:
 * Persian:
 * Sundanese: sakedik
 * Swedish:
 * Tocharian B: totka