【问】 我一直搞不清few与a few的区别。ALD将few解释为not many (不多)，但我们老师说few具有否定含义。“不多”怎么能说是否定含义呢?
 【答】 a few具有肯定的意义，也就是说，说话人的语气在于强调其“有”，尽管数目不是很多。一般可译为“一些”、“若干”：
 1. Could I have a few words with you?
 我可以同你谈几句话吗?
 2. Let's invite a few friends to come with us.
 让我们邀请几个朋友与我们一起去吧。
 3. He has a few friends.
 他有一些朋友。(肯定他确实有些朋友。)
 4. There were a few mistakes in your essay.
 你的文章里有几个错误。
 few跟little一样，虽然在形态上不是否定的，但在语义和句法功能上却是否定的。中国学生总是很难理解这一点。许多英汉词典(如《远东英汉大辞典》)均将few译为：“很少的”、“不多的”。学生们问：“很少的”和“不多的”，不是都表示“有一些”吗?怎么能说“具有否定意义”呢?这里应向学生们指出，few的真正含义并不是“几个”、“一些”、“不多”，而是“几乎没有”、“几乎不存在”。说话人的口气是倾向于“无”的，但又不是“绝对地无”。我们说few具有否定意义或半否定意义，那是从说话人的口气来说的。
 1. He has few friends.
 他几乎没有什么朋友。
 2. He is a man of few words.
 他是个寡言少语的人。
 3. Today few ships are powered by piston steam engines.
 今天几乎没有什么船舶是用活塞式蒸气机作动力的了。
 4. They have many supporters，while we have few.
 他们有许多支持者，而我们没有什么支持者。
 5. I have few books to lend you.
 我没有什么书可借给你。
 6. There are very few apples left.
 苹果所剩无几了。
 7. Few people die of small pox nowadays.
 现在很少有人死于天花了。
 8. He wrote few books.
 他写出的书很少。
 9. That tyrant has few friends，if any at all，but there are a few men who flatter him fortheir own advancement. (IME)
 那个暴君，如果说有朋友的话，那也是很少的，但是有一些人为了晋升却在不断地奉承他。
 10. To varying degrees，we all have secrets which we do not want even our closest friendsto learn，but few of us have skeletons in the cupboard. (New Concept English，Book3 ，L.24)
 我们在不同程度上都有一些甚至连最亲密的朋友也不想让他们知道的秘密，但是却极少有人有橱中骷髅。
 请做下面的英语试题：
 1. The house itself had____surprises for Mr Bolton. It was exactly as he had imaginedit.
 A. little B. a little C. few D. a few (Nelson，400B)
 2. Almost everyone had finished the book.
 A. Only a few people hadn’t finished it.
 B. Everyone had most of it finished.
 C. All the people had finished it.
 D. Nobody had finished all of it. (TOEFL，87.5)
 3. “Did you go on many of the club’s ski trips this year?”
 “No，____.”
 A. little at all B. not much
 C. quite less D. very few(TOEFL，71. 1;74.11)
 4. Generally speaking，tax returns must be filed annually，but in few cases they must besubmitted every six months. (TOEFL，80.1)
 (参见little/a little)