List F

Far and a long way

Far is most common in questions and negative sentences, and after too and so.

  • How far did you walk?
  • I don’t live far from here.
  • You’ve gone too far.
  • ‘Any problems?’’ Not so far’ (=not up to now.)

In affirmative sentences, we usually use a long way.

  • We walked a long way. (We walked far is possible, but not usual.)
  • She lives a long way from here.

(a) few and (a) little

1. We use few with plural nouns, and little with singular (uncountable) nouns.
Compare:

  • Few politicians are really honest.
  • I have little interest in politics

2. There is a difference between a few and few, and between a little and little.
Few and little are rather negative: they mean ‘not much/many’.
A few and a little are more positive, their meaning is more like ‘some’.
Compare:

  • His ideas are very difficult, and few people understand them.
    (=not many people,  hardly any people)
  • His ideas are difficult, but a few people understand them.
    (=some people- better than nothing)
  • I need little water
  • Give the roses a little water every day.

3. Few and little (without a) are rather formal. In conversation, we prefer not many, not much, only a few or only a little.

  • Only a few people speak a foreign language perfectly.
  • Come on! We haven‘t got much time!

List F

facilities or faculties? FACILITIES = amenities
FACULTIES = mental or physical
aptitudes
farther or further? Both words can be used to refer to
physical distance although some writers
prefer to keep ‘farther’ for this purpose.
I can walk FARTHER than you.
I can walk FURTHER than you.
FURTHER is used in a figurative sense:
Nothing was FURTHER from my mind.
FURTHER is also used in certain
expressions:
FURTHER education
until FURTHER notice
fewer or less? FEWER is the comparative form of ‘few’.
It is used with plural nouns:
FEWER vegetables
FEWER responsibilities
FEWER children
LESS is the comparative form of ‘little’.
It is used in the sense of ‘a small amount’
rather than ‘a fewer number of ’:
LESS enthusiasm
LESS sugar
LESS petrol
LESS THAN is used with number alone,
and expressions of time and distance:
LESS THAN athousand
LESS THAN ten seconds
LESS THAN four miles
It is considered incorrect to use ‘less’
nstead of ‘fewer’ although such confusion
s frequent in popular speech.
As a rule of thumb, remember:
FEWER =notsomany
LESS =notsomuch
foreword or forward? Use these exemplar sentences as a guide:
The Poet Laureate had written a
FOREWORD for the new anthology.
I am looking FORWARD to the holiday.
Will you please FORWARD this letter?
formally or formerly? FORMALLY = in a formal manner
FORMERLY = previously, at an earlier
time