Cover of the textbook New Total English Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book

The key answer of exercise 4

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 7.1 - Food for thought for the textbook New Total English Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book with authors Araminta Crace and Richard Acklam from Pearson Education

Question

  1. Look at the quantifiers in bold in the Active grammar box and match them with the rules (A-C).
  2. Look again at the quantifiers in bold from the Active grammar box. Which group (a-c) does each quantifiers belong to?
  3. What is the difference between few / a few and little / a little in the sentences (1-4) below?

Answer

a)

  1. a large number of; many; a few
  2. a great deal of; a little; much; a piece of; a bit of

b)

  1. a large number of; a lot of; a great deal of; many; much; lots of
  2. a little; a few
  3. some; a bit of; a piece of; any

c)

  • few and little (without a) are used in a rather negative way, meaning not as many / much as you expected or wanted
  • a few and a little are used in a more positive way