Re: Few vs. a few

I've been meaning to add this bit of trivia.... Somewhere years ago I saw a
(semi-serious) definition:
"a few are eight" :-))))

Edgard Bikelis wrote:
>Well, once a romanian friend corrected me, saying that "a few" means
>something like "not few ~ many"
Not in English, where "a few" means "a small but indefinite number"
(eight?). But it's also relative: "a smaller number than expected".

>and "few" means just "few".
Either "a very small number" OR "a much smaller number than expected"-- in
this last sense I'd say it's near-synonymous with "only/just a few"--


>But see:
>Quite a few cats are flying over my house ~ many cats.
Yes, or at least, "many more than expected"

>Quite few cats &c &c ~ few cats.
IMO use of "quite" here is a little odd-- "very few" more common, and yes,
it means "a (very) small number"

Come to think of it, they're both rather relative :-((  If you're expecting
10,000 to attend a protest rally and only 100 show up, that's "(very) few";
if 300-500 show up, that could be "few ~only a few"; OTOH if 500-2000 come,
that might be "a few". Either quantity might be described as
"disappointingly few".  "Quite a few" could probably be almost any number,
perhaps a bit more than 5000 (but nowhere near the expected 10,000).....
>
> >
> > Or in any natlang you may know.  I wonder of "Poca gente asistieron en
> > la reunion" conveys both meanings.
>
>Is "poca gente asistieron" grammatical? It screams "wrooong!" to my
>portuguese ears: "pouca gente assistiu".
>
Shame on me, I missed that.............