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Few vs None - What's the difference?

few | none |

As a proper noun few

is (british) the pilots who fought in the battle of britain.

As a noun none is

an interval of 13 (kleine none'') or 14 (''große none ) half-tones.

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

    Pronoun

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

    Antonyms

    * many

    References

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

    none

    English

    Alternative forms

    * non

    Pronoun

    (English Pronouns)
  • Not any (one) (of) a given number or group of things. With singular or plural concord.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.}}
  • * 2006 , (Clive James), North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, page 253:
  • Alas, none of these people were writing the reviews.
  • Not any person: no one, nobody (with singular concord); no people (with plural concord).
  • Usage notes

    Although uncountable nouns require none'' to be conjugated with a singular verb, ''e.g.'', ''None of this meat tastes right'', the pronoun can be either singular or plural in most other cases, ''e.g.'', ''Fifty people applied for the position, but none were accepted.'', and ''None was qualified . However, where the given or implied context is clearly singular or plural, then a matching verb makes better sense: : None of these men is my father. : None of those options is the best one. : None of these people are my parents.

    Antonyms

    * some * all

    Derived terms

    * half a loaf is better than none

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • (archaic, outside, Scotland) Not any; no.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Matthew XXV:
  • the foles toke their lampes, but toke none oyle with them.
  • * 2008 , (James Kelman), Kieron Smith, Boy , Penguin 2009, page 138:
  • None lasses were in the dunces' row. If one had been there people would have looked at her and felt sorry but not boys.

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (senseid) To no extent, in no way.
  • I felt none the worse for my recent illness.
    He was none too pleased with the delays in the program that was supposed to be his legacy.
  • Not at all.
  • Now don't you worry none .
  • (obsolete) No, not.
  • * c. 1390 , Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Shipman's Tale", Canterbury Tales :
  • And up into his contour-hous gooth he / To rekene with hymself, wel may be, / Of thilke yeer how that it with hym stood, / And how that he despended hadde his good, / And if that he encresses were or noon .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person without religious affiliation.
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  • Statistics

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