好词典

few

UK //fjuː//US //fjuː//

词源

源自古英语'fēawe',与古高地德语'fao'同源,原始日耳曼语词根表示'少量'。

determiner

❶ 表示数量很少,强调不足或缺乏,通常用于可数名词前,带有否定意味。

“Few people attended the meeting.”

(很少有人参加会议。)

“She has few friends in this city.”

(她在这个城市几乎没有朋友。)

同义词:scant, limited, sparse

pronoun

❶ 指代数量很少的人或事物,常与动词复数形式连用。

“Few understand the complexity of this issue.”

(很少有人理解这个问题的复杂性。)

“Many applied, but few were selected.”

(很多人申请,但只有少数人被选中。)

同义词:a handful, a small number

常见短语

a few — 表示'有一些',虽然数量不多但比'few'更积极,暗示'足够'或'比预期多'。

“I have a few ideas for the project.”

(关于这个项目我有几个想法。)

quite a few — 表示'相当多',比预期数量更多,常用于口语中表达惊讶。

“There were quite a few mistakes in the report.”

(报告里有相当多的错误。)