§ 33. The pronouns little and few are used as noun pronouns

and as adjective pronouns.Little means 'a small amount'. As a noun pronoun, it takes a

singular verb. As an adjective pronoun, it is used with uncountable

nouns.

e.g. Little was known of his life when he was alive.

My story was a record of hard work and little adventure.

Few means 'a small number'. As a noun pronoun, it takes a

plural verb. As an adjective pronoun, it is used with countable

nouns in the plural.

e.g. Yet few have been found to deny the man's greatness.

Very few decisions were ever taken in that department.

Both little and few have a negative implication — they mean

'not enough'.

e.g. The shipwrecked sailors had no food and little water.

Few people would agree with you.

A little and a few, which are to be treated as set phrases, have

a positive meaning. They mean 'some though not much (many)'.

e.g. He earns a little money and can live quite comfortably on it.

I suggested that he should get a few grapes and some bread.

Compare:

e.g. I know little about painting. (= almost nothing) I know a

little about painting. (= something) There is little change in

his appearance. (= almost no change) There is a little change

in his appearance. (= some change) Few birds can be seen in

that place. (= almost none) A few birds can be seen in that

place. (= some birds) He has few friends and lives a lonely

life. (= almost none) He has a few friends who call to see

him quite frequently. (= some friends)

Little and few change for degrees of comparison. Their forms are:

little — less — least few — fewer —

fewest

e.g. Please make less noise.

George gives me the least trouble.

There were fewer people in the bus today.

Who has made the fewest mistakes?Reciprocal Pronouns

§ 34. There are two reciprocal pronouns in English: each other

and one another. They show that something is done mutually.

Both pronouns are mainly used in the function of an object (direct,

indirect or prepositional) in the sentence.

e.g. I knew that my two aunts bitterly disliked each other.

They had come to understand one another, Pyke and he,

without anything being said. But he was a little puzzled by

the behaviour of Blanche and

Strickland towards one another.

As is seen from the above examples, both each other and one

another can be used when speaking of two persons. However,

when more than two persons are meant, only one another is usually

used.

e.g. When he entered the cafe he saw the people wink at one another.

Each other and one another can be used in the genitive case.

e.g. They had not met so long that they had forgotten each other's

names.

In their letters they made it a rule to inquire after one another's

relatives.Interrogative Pronouns

§ 35. The interrogative pronouns are: who (whom), whose,

what, which, how much and how many. They are all used in forming

questions.

§ 36. The pronoun who asks about persons. It does not distinguish

gender or number. It may be masculine or feminine, singular

or plural in meaning. Who is the nominative case and it is

mainly used as the subject of the sentence.

e.g. Who is coming with me?

Who are the people over there?

he objective case of who is whom which is used as an object T

in the sentence. It may be a direct (a) or prepositional object (b).e.g. a) Whom did you see there?

Whom does he suspect? b) To whom did you

give the message? Of whom are you

thinking? By whom was it done?

But whom is the literary form and is preferred in writing. In

conversation it is replaced by who. When who happens to be used as

a prepositional object, the preposition is placed at the end of

the«sentence.

e.g. Who did you see there? Who does he

suspect? Who did you give the message

to? Who are you thinking of? Who was

it done by?

Note the idiomatic uses of who in the following sentences:

e.g. It was so dark that I couldn't tell who's who. (= could not

tell one person from the other)

You'll find his name in Who's Who. (= a reference book on

contemporary outstanding people)