little, less, and few

Hello,
Some moths ago I created a similar thread.
However, I have not completely understood this topic. :-(

I hope the following questions can be answered
(And no, they do not make any sense :-D)

Do we use little when we can't count things?
You have too little knowledge.
I will not go to the party because there will be too little fun.

Do we use less when we can count things?
You cannot buy this article because you have too less dollars.
I have too less friends.

Do we use few to compare both countable and uncountable things?
Tom has only a few friends, but I have fewer friends.
I have only little water, but some guys have fewer water.
Yesterday I had less dollars, but today I even have fewer dollars.

Thank you!

Cheers!

Nightmare85 said:

Hello,
Some moths ago I created a similar thread.
However, I have not completely understood this topic. :-(

I hope the following questions can be answered
(And no, they do not make any sense :-D)

Do we use little when we can't count things?
You have too little knowledge.
I will not go to the party because there will be too little fun.

Do we use less when we can count things?
You cannot buy this article because you have too less dollars.
You can't say "too less".
I have too less friends.

Do we use few to compare both countable and uncountable things?
Tom has only a few friends, but I have fewer friends. This is correct.
I have only little water, but some guys have fewer water. You can't mix "little" and "fewer" and you can't use "fewer" for uncountable nouns like "water".
Yesterday I had less dollars, but today I even have fewer dollars. You can't say "less dollars", you can't use "less" for countable nouns.

Thank you!

Cheers!

Click to expand...

.

Thanks.

Okay, but what are the correct versions for "too less"?
What's the bigger form for "little"?

P.S: I wrote "moths" instead of "months"- I've just seen it...

Cheers!

Nightmare85 said:

Hello,
Some moths ago I created a similar thread.
However, I have not completely understood this topic. :-(

I hope the following questions can be answered
(And no, they do not make any sense :-D)

Do we use little when we can't count things?
You have too little knowledge.
I will not go to the party because there will be too little fun.

Do we use less when we can count things?
You cannot buy this article because you have too less dollars.
I have too less friends.

Do we use few to compare both countable and uncountable things?
Tom has only a few friends, but I have fewer friends.
I have only little water, but some guys have fewer water.
Yesterday I had less dollars, but today I even have fewer dollars.

Thank you!

Cheers!

Click to expand...

***NOT A TEACHER***(1) very little knowledge. (2)very little fun. (3)too few dollars. (4) too few friends. (5) I have little water/ I have only a little water -- some guys have less (water than I do). (6) I had few dollars/ I had a few dollars -- today I have even fewer dollars (than I did yesterday). *** few/fewer/the fewest = how many?; little/less/the least = how much?

As far as I know;

a few> few
a little > little

For a/few:
I have a few friends and they are really good ones (It's ok even if I don't have more)
I have few friends and this makes me unhappy.

For a/little:
There is a little water left and it's enough to quench my thirst.
There is little water left and it's not enough to quench my thirst.

Nightmare85 said:

Thanks.

Okay, but what are the correct versions for "too less"?
What's the bigger form for "little"?

P.S: I wrote "moths" instead of "months"- I've just seen it...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

The expression ‘too less’ can be used as an adverb or adjective (to describe uncountable nouns). Look at the following sentences using the expression both as adjective and adverb.

There was too less time for him, but he had done a quite good job for the time he had.

Vitamins are essential for our body but the amount should not be too much or too less

I have done too less to take the credit.

The bigger form of ‘little’ are ‘less’ and ‘least’.

sarat_106 said:

The expression ‘too less’ can be used as an adverb or adjective (to describe uncountable nouns). Look at the following sentences using the expression both as adjective and adverb.

There was too less time for him, but he had done a quite good job for the time he had.

Vitamins are essential for our body but the amount should not be too much or too less

I have done too less to take the credit.

The bigger form of ‘little’ are ‘less’ and ‘least’.

Click to expand...

Maybe you can say "too less" in Indian English. It sounds very odd, as "too more" would.
Elsewhere, we'd say "too little" for all the cases where you have "too less".

more or less
much or little: "too much or too little"

sarat_106 said:

The expression ‘too less’ can be used as an adverb or adjective (to describe uncountable nouns). Look at the following sentences using the expression both as adjective and adverb.

There was too less time for him, but he had done a quite good job for the time he had.

Vitamins are essential for our body but the amount should not be too much or too less

I have done too less to take the credit.

The bigger form of ‘little’ are ‘less’ and ‘least’.

Click to expand...

There is no such expression as *too less!!

philo2009 said:

There is no such expression as *too less!!

Click to expand...

I put the expression 'too less' in the Yahoo search which returned 947,000,000 results for Too less:

I agree with Raymott that 'too' does not go well with 'less' (being the comparative form of little) and is not in common use but it does not deserve outright rejection.

sarat_106 said:

I put the expression 'too less' in the Yahoo search which returned 947,000,000 results for Too less:

I agree with Raymott that 'too' does not go well with 'less' (being the comparative form of little) and is not in common use but it does not deserve outright rejection.

Click to expand...

Then it would appear that you have simply uncovered 947,000,000 instances of people without a proper command of standard English (most likely, in the case of this phrase, non-natives) posting things on the Internet, a sadly far from atypical phenomenon which rather tends to invalidate Internet searches as a useful way of ever determining what is or is not correct English.

As an educated native speaker and language professional, I can state with absolute certainly that 'too less' is NOT English!!!

End of debate.

EOC

philo2009 said:

End of debate.EOC

Click to expand...

I do not envy your wife, Philo, but I envy you.

Thank you all!
I really think I have understood this topic now :up:

Cheers!