Few vs All - What's the difference?
few | all |
(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= (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.
(meteorology, of rainfall with regard to a location) (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.
(degree) (intensifier).
Apiece; each.
* 1878 , Gerard Manley Hopkins,
(degree) So much.
(dialect, Pennsylvania) All gone; dead.
(obsolete, poetic) even; just
* Spenser
* Gay
Every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable).
:
*
*:In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass. In this way all respectable burgesses, down to fifty years ago, spent their evenings.
*, chapter=1
, title= Throughout the whole of (a stated period of time; generally used with units of a day or longer).
: (= through the whole of the day and the whole of the night.)
: (= from the beginning of the year until now.)
Everyone.
:
Everything.
:
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=3
, passage=Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.}}
(lb) Any.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:without all remedy
Only; alone; nothing but.
:
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.
(with a possessive pronoun) Everything possible.
(countable) The totality of one's possessions.
* 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, pp. 37-8:
(obsolete) although
* (rfdate) Spenser
As a proper noun few
is (british) the pilots who fought in the battle of britain.As an initialism all is
lek, currency used in albania.few
English
Determiner
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.]
- 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.
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
* manyDerived terms
* a few * quite a fewAntonyms
* manyReferences
* Meteorology (both senses) *:NOAA Glossary: f
all
English
Adverb
(-)- You’ve got it all wrong.
- She was all , “Whatever.”
- The score was 30 all when the rain delay started.
- His locks like all a ravel-rope’s-end,
- With hempen strands in spray
- Don't want to go? All the better since I lost the tickets.
- The butter is all .
- All as his straying flock he fed.
- A damsel lay deploring / All on a rock reclined.
Synonyms
* completelyDeterminer
(en determiner)Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path
Noun
- She gave her all , and collapsed at the finish line.
- she therefore ordered Jenny to pack up her alls and begone, for that she was determined she should not sleep that night within her walls.
Derived terms
* a bit of all right * after all * all about * all along * all-American * all and sundry * all-around * all around * all at once * All Blacks * all but * all clear * all-comers * all-day * all-embracing * all-encompassing * all fingers and thumbs * all-fire * All Fools' Day * all for * All Hallows * All Hallows' Day * all hands on deck * allheal * all-important * all in * all-in * all in all * all-in wrestling * all-inclusive * all-knowing * all-night * all-nighter * all of a sudden * all one * all one's life's worth * all or nothing * all-out * all over * all-over * all-overish * all over the place * all over with * all-party * all-powerful * all-purpose * all right * all-round * all-rounder * All Saints' Day * allseed * all-seeing * * allsorts * All Souls' Day * allspice * all square * all-star * all systems go * all that * all the best * all the more * all the same * all the way * all-time * all together * all told * all-too-familiar * all-up * all-up service * all up with * all very well * all-weather * and all * and all that * at all * be all ears * be-all and end-all * best of all * bugger all * catchall * coveralls * cure-all * for all * for good and all * fuck all * give one's all * go all the way * in all * know-it-all * most of all * naff all * not all there * not at all * on all fours * once and for all * overalls * sod all * when all is said and doneSee also
* any * each * every * everyone * everything * none * some *Conjunction
(English Conjunctions)- All they were wondrous loth.