Timeline for “I have little money” vs. “I have a little money”
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 3, 2014 at 2:06 | comment | added | Khan | @Tyler, thanks for your nice editing, giving a good shape to my answer. | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 12:22 | comment | added | Wayne | +1, but to nitpick: the two phrases may well describe the same situation -- a small amount of progress was made, a small amount of money is available -- it's the connotations that differ. As you say, "a little" is optimistic, while "little" is pessimistic. Thus, "he made a little progress" could express belief that progress is possible, while "he made little progress" could express the belief that progress is not actually possible. | |
| Oct 2, 2014 at 9:27 | comment | added | Iain Galloway | It might be worth noting that especially when it comes to money "a little" is frequently a euphemism. "Do you think we can afford a house in central London? I have a little money set aside." actually implies I have rather a lot of money. (Or an extremely poor understanding of the London housing market!). The key thing, I think, is that "a little money" is "maybe enough money [to do whatever we're talking about]" wheras "little money" is "probably not enough money [to do whatever we're talking about]". | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 20:42 | comment | added | GalacticCowboy | "a little" is positive: greater than zero. "little" is negative: less than "much". | |
| Oct 1, 2014 at 20:12 | comment | added | Tim S. | The difference may come across easily for a native speaker, but I'd guess it wouldn't for someone just learning English, who hasn't heard both (or even one) form before. | |
| S Oct 1, 2014 at 14:27 | history | edited | Tyler James Young | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
use/mention distinction, example sentence formatting, emphasis and other minor edits for clarity
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| S Oct 1, 2014 at 14:27 | history | suggested | Peteris | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Separated the example words/quotes from the text
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| Oct 1, 2014 at 11:54 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 1, 2014 at 14:27 | |||||
| Oct 1, 2014 at 10:31 | history | answered | Khan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |