too few people, too little water

Yourjones · Dec 29, 2014

Hello,

I think I can say "There were too many people in the hospital this morning." But can I say "Too few people came to our meeting this morning. In fact, I hope there could have been more"?

Also, can I say "There is too little water in the bottle for them to drink"?

Grumpy · Dec 29, 2014

Yourjones said:
Hello,

I think I can say "There were too many people in the hospital this morning." [Yes] But can I say "Too few people came to our meeting this morning. In fact, I hoped there could have been more"? [Yes, but you have to use "hoped", because you are obviously not hoping now for something which occurred in the past. Perhaps you meant to say "wish" instead of "hoped"?]

Also, can I say "There is too little water in the bottle for them to drink"? [Yes, but it would be better to say "There is not enough water in the bottle..."]

Please see my comments above.

Yourjones · Jan 1, 2015

Hi "Grumpy",

Thanks for your answer. I had never known there was such difference between "wish" and "hope" before. But it's just so subtle, isn't it?

And yes, I would say "There is not enough water" rather than "...too little water." Thanks again!

emsr2d2 · Jan 1, 2015

I don't feel that "There isn't enough water ..." is any better than "There is too little water".

Grumpy · Jan 1, 2015

emsr2d2 said:
I don't feel that "There isn't enough water ..." is any better than "There is too little water".

That's interesting, emsr. I'll stick to my guns - although I have to admit that I'm not exactly sure why I think that "not enough" is better in this type of context.
Would you say "I have too little money to buy that", rather than "I haven't enough money to buy that"?

Tdol · Jan 2, 2015

I think not enough is more common than too little,which is why it might sound better.

too few people, too little water

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