'Little' and 'A Little'

All right so let’s get started with some quanta fires.

I’m going to use count and non non for uncountable to mark these just so you know which ones they should be connected to.

Which nouns they should be connected to.

So a little and little are these countable or uncountable.

Actually none.

OK.

So these are both uncountable not none.

It’s a different thing.

Non non uncountable.

So we wouldn’t say for example a little cups we wouldn’t say little cups although that does have a different meaning.

If we’re talking about little in this sense.

But if we use little in this sense then it’s not a quanta fire it’s an adjective.

OK so let’s let’s get started a little is positive and little is often negative.

That means when it’s good news that we have a little of something right.

It’s good news it’s good not zero.

Then we use a little if it’s bad news we should have many maybe or I guess I should say a lot of something and we don’t we use little little.

So we usually focus on the negative for this one and the positive for this one for example let’s do a couple examples of each.

OK.

There’s a there’s a little coffee left if you want some.

It’s not gone.

That’s great.

That means I can have some good.

There’s a little coffee left.

It’s a positive statement OK.

I’ve got a little time.

What’s up.

Someone asks for your time.

Hey do you think you could help me with something.

Yeah I’ve got a little time.

What’s up.

What means how can I help you.

So this is a positive statement means I have some time to give you now a lot is often used for things that are a little larger than we say and that’s usually a good thing but we don’t want to express it to confidently we want to be a little bit understated.

This is quite common in British English in particular.

So for example let’s say you post a video and you suddenly become a famous Internet celebrity and someone asks you about how things are going for you right.

You could say well it’s it’s a little little hectic right now a little hectic right now hectic means very busy so you’re probably very busy or probably totally swamped.

And you’re wanting to express it in an understated way so you use a little very common to use a little and also a bit which we’ll talk about in a bit.

Very soon.

OK so I’m a little a little tired maybe I’m exhausted maybe I’m very tired and I want to go home but you don’t say to the host of the party I’m exhausted.

I want to go home.

You say I’m a little tired.

I think I’ll go home.

No I should probably go instead of saying I’m exhausted.

All right.

How about Little.

Well we focus more on the negative.

The fact that we’re almost close to zero and that’s not a good thing.

For example there’s too little time to finish the project.

It’s terrible.

That means we don’t have enough it’s not enough Not enough time.

This is bad.

This is bad there’s too little time.

We don’t have enough time.

We won’t finish low.

That’s not good.

That’s not good at all.

We don’t want that.

OK.

Let’s try another one.

You have very little to do with the investigation.

You can go.

OK.

So there’s an investigation maybe someone’s in trouble maybe you’re a witness you saw something happen and you’re at the police station and they were asking you some questions but really you were far away you weren’t really involved.

Maybe this is something we’d see on a TV show.

You weren’t really involved.

You just saw something happening.

And finally it’s late and they say well you had very little to do with the investigation which means almost nothing.

And we’re focusing on the fact that it’s almost nothing.

OK you can go you can go.

So we’re getting closer and closer to zero.

And that’s not to say it’s a bad thing.

But the emphasis is on the fact that it’s close to zero as opposed to a little which is focusing on the fact that it’s not zero.

I hope that makes sense.

I hope that difference is clear.

OK.

There’s so little food again.

We have almost no food.

There’s so little food.

But if we say I have a little food that means probably you asked me for some.

And I’m willing to give you some.

Here you are.

So it’s usually a little more positive.

Let’s move on.