Line英会話クラス
Lesson Plan January 23, 2026
Topic: A little and A few
In this lesson we will learn ways to talk about quantity.
Section A:
Maggie: We’re cooking tonight. Let’s see how much food we’ve got.
Daniel: OK. We’ve got plenty of rice and lots of tomatoes. We’ve also got several onions.
Maggie: Great! How about cheese?
Daniel: Well, we’ve got a little and there are only a couple of eggs. I think we need three or four. And there are hardly any mushrooms.
Maggie: OK so we need to buy eggs, cheese and a few mushrooms.
Study the following phrases
A lot; a lot of / plenty of / lots of / several
Not much / many; a little / very little / only a couple of / hardly any / a few
You use a little / little before uncountable nouns and a few / few before countable nouns
There’s only a little food in the fridge.
I bought a few books yesterday.
These sentences show the difference between few, a few, little and a little
I have few friends. = I don’t have many friends.
I have a few DVDs. = I have some DVDs.
There was very little food left at the end of the party. = There wasn’t much food left.
There was a little food left at the end of the party. = There was some food left.
You can only use several and a couple of before countable nouns.
There are a couple of people waiting for you.
I’ve been to several sumo matches this year.
You can use these phrases as short answers to questions. You do not use of in short answers
A: How much homework have you got?
B: Hardly any!
A: Have you got any money?
B: A little.
A: Have you seen any of his films?
B: A couple.
Remember
A lot of, lots of, plenty of and hardly any can be used with countable and uncountable nouns
We’ve got lots of (milk / bananas).
She eats hardly any (fruit / vegetables).
Lesson Notes
“Little” for small amounts
Little = not much
I have little money left. I can’t afford to go to the movies tonight.
Little can be done about the increasing number of bears. (“Little” can also be used as a pronoun to mean “not much”)
Very little can be done about the bad weather. (We can use “very” here to add emphasis)
A little = some
I have a little money left. Should we get a snack?
There’s a little bit of the park that we haven’t seen yet. (Informally, “a (little) bit of” can be used instead of “a little)
“Few” for small numbers
Few is used with plural countable nouns to say that there are not many of something. It emphasizes how small the number is
There are few rare birds here. We probably won’t see any. (few = not many)
Tomorrow I think it will snow, there will be few people at the museum.
A few is used with plural countable nouns to mean “some”. It emphasizes that the number though small, is enough.
There are a few cats in the neighbourhood. They are all friendly. (a few = some)
There will be a few people at the party. I think we have enough food for everyone.
“Quite a few” and “quite a bit (of)” for big quantities
The phrases “quite a bit of” and “quite a few” are understatements that actually mean “a lot” or “many”
quite a few = many
The park is home to quite a few species of exotic animals.
Quite a few students in my class don’t like History.
There are quite a few books that I’d like to read this year.
quite a bit of = a lot of
There is quite a bit of open space in this park.
There’s still quite a bit of snow on the ground.
She ate quite a bit of cake at her birthday party.
