Few and a few follow the same pattern as Little and a little. The only difference is that we use few and a few with countable nouns in the plural, and we use little and a little with uncountable nouns.
How to use a few?
When we say "a few" we are talking about a small but sufficient quantity, for example:
- I have a few friends.
In the example above, we use a few to indicate that I only have a few friends, which can range from 5 to 7 friends. However, if we remove "A" from few, we'll say something else.
How to use few?
We will say that "few" is a very small and not sufficient quantity, for example:
- I have few friends.
In the example above, we use "few" to indicate that I only have very few friends, which can range from 1 to 3 friends.
Note: Few and a few come with plural countable nouns, examples:
- Restaurants
- Men
- Dogs
- Photographs
- Teeth