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Enough vs Few - What's the difference?

enough | few |

As determiners the difference between enough and few

is that enough is sufficient; all that is required, needed, or appropriate while few is an indefinite, but usually small, number of.

As pronouns the difference between enough and few

is that enough is a sufficient or adequate number, amount, etc while few is few people, few things.

As an adverb enough

is sufficiently.

As an interjection enough

is stop! Don't do that anymore, etc.

As a proper noun Few is

the pilots who fought in the Battle of Britain.

enough

English

Alternative forms

* (l) * (l) (obsolete) * (l), (l), (l) (Scotland)

Determiner

(en determiner)
  • Sufficient; all that is required, needed, or appropriate.
  • * Bible, (Gospel of Luke) xv. 17
    • How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare!
  • * , chapter=16
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The preposterous altruism too!
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=15 citation , passage=‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough ! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’}}

    Adverb

    (head)
  • Sufficiently.
  • :
  • *, chapter=5
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.}}
  • Fully; quite; used to express slight augmentation of the positive degree, and sometimes equivalent to very .
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:I know you well enough ; you are Signior Antonio.
  • *
  • *:“[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”

    • Usage notes

    * As an adverb, enough always follows the verb it qualifies.

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • A sufficient or adequate number, amount, etc.
    • I have enough to keep me going .

    Interjection

  • stop! Don't do that anymore, etc.
    • Enough !

    Statistics

    * English words prefixed with y- 1000 English basic words

    few

    English

    Determiner

  • (preceded by another determiner) An indefinite, but usually small, number of.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= A new prescription , passage=No sooner has a [synthetic] drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.}}
    I was expecting lots of people at the party, but very few''''' (=''almost none'') ''turned up.   Quite a '''few''' of them'' (=''many of them'') ''were pleasantly surprised.   I don't know how many drinks I've had, but I've had a '''few . [This usage is likely ironic.]
  • (used alone) Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.
  • (meteorology, of clouds) (US?) Obscuring one eighth to two eighths of the sky.
    • NOAA definition of the term "few clouds": An official sky cover classification for aviation weather observations, descriptive of a sky cover of 1/8 to 2/8. This is applied only when obscuring phenomenon aloft are present--that is, not when obscuring phenomenon are surface-based, such as fog.
  • (meteorology, of rainfall with regard to a location) (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.

    • Usage notes

    * (term) is used with plural nouns only; its synonymous counterpart (little) is used with nouns. * Although indefinite in nature, a few is usually more than two (two often being referred to as "a couple of"), and less than "several". If the sample population is say between 5 and 20, a few would mean three or four, but no more than this. However, if the population sample size were in the millions, "a few" could refer to several hundred items. In other words, few'' in this context means ''a very very small percentage but way over the 3 or 4 usually ascribed to it its use with much much smaller numbers. : (term) is grammatically affirmative but semantically negative, and it can license negative polarity items. For example, lift a finger usually cannot be used in affirmative sentences, but can be used in sentences with (term). *: He didn't lift a finger to help us. *: *He lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical) *: Few people lifted a finger to help us. *: *A few people lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical) *: *Fewer people lifted a finger to help us. (ungrammatical)

    Synonyms

    * little (see usage)

    Antonyms

    * many

    Derived terms

    * a few * quite a few

    Related terms

    * paucity * poor

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • Few people, few things.
    • Many are called, but few are chosen.

    Antonyms

    * many

    References

    * Meteorology (both senses) *: NOAA Glossary: f

    Statistics

    * 200 English basic words English indefinite pronouns 1000 English basic words