In Negatives^x, Indefinite articles^x

Emily_ wrote:Hi, I found this explanation on the BBC: When we use few and little without the indefinite article, they usually have a negative meaning, but when we use them with the indefinite article, a little or a few, they have a more positive meaning. Compare the following: I have few...

Hi, I found this explanation on the BBC: When we use few and little without the indefinite article, they usually have a negative meaning, but when we use them with the indefinite article, a little or a few, they have a more positive meaning. Compare the following: I have few friends in...

Teo wrote:Grammatically conceivable, but nevertheless still unacceptable on grounds of extreme unnaturalness. We do not normally use 'any' with an unmodified countable noun in a simple interrogative of this type (#5, you will observe, is a negative, not interrogative sentence, to which somewhat...

Grammatically conceivable, but nevertheless still unacceptable on grounds of extreme unnaturalness. We do not normally use 'any' with an unmodified countable noun in a simple interrogative of this type (#5, you will observe, is a negative, not interrogative sentence, to which somewhat different...

Thanks, Eagle, Paco, and MisterM for all your painstaking posts! Much to chew on. 1. It's odd that both your and K's dictionaries give this structure, which I seldom if ever hear. Maybe it's more common elsewhere. Sorry, all: I should have been clearer. I meant the ‘Child as he was…’...