Hi!
Yesterday, I was asked whether I'd write the following sentence:
'I am now going to analyze a few dialogues ....' in formal (academic) English.
After I replied that I would, my friend went on saying: "Why wouldn't you write
'I am now going to analyze some dialogues...'?"
I told him that it was grammatically fine, too, and that I would have made my choice depending on the meaning I wanted to convey. I told him that, according to what I have been taught,
few carries a negative meaning (not enough),
a few a positive one (more than enough) and
some is neutral.
My friend agreed with me on the difference between
few and
a few, but he said that I was being too picky about
some. Since I trust my friend's feeling and knowledge of English more than mine, I thought I'd better ask native speakers whether this difference between
some and
a few (or, by the same token, between
some and
few) really exists or it is one of those things taught in ESL classes but not applied in the "real world."
Many thanks!