When do we use 'a few'instead of 'few'? For example, why is it incorrect to say "I have few dollars left" instead of "I have a few dollars left"? Most people reason it should be few dollars because "dollars" is a plural noun.
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I have few friends.   I have a few friends.      I thought "few" means just one, two or even none. "A few" typically means more than two. However it seems to me some people say "few" when they really mean "a few", am I right?
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Possible Duplicate:     Which one is correct? I thought the latter would be correct but apparently the former is always used; why? Edit: Another (confusing) example:
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I am a little bit confused about using units in English, sometimes I hear that people use singular units for plural things, sometimes they use plural ones. Which one is correct?   3 meter(s) long? during a 2 week(s) period? 0.5 dollar(s)
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I always have doubts whether to use a singular or a plural noun when I refer to certain peoples.  For example, we say Americans, Italians, Brazilians, Russians and Austrians.  But we say The British, The English, The Portuguese, The French, The Spanish, The Chinese, and The Irish. When it comes to those nationals I rarely hear of, I'm never sure. These would include people from countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia or Kenya. Is there any rule as to whether we should use singular or plural ?
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Can I use &quot;less&quot; in sentences like this:  1 Why do we have so less number of students for this class? 2 My song collection is very less.  &quot;Small&quot; sounds better in both examples, but I would like to know if using &quot;less&quot; in these sentences is correct?
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You would think we never use "skies" since there's only one sky, but I've heard it often enough that I often want to say "skies" rather than "sky". The problem is that I never gave much thought about it, so I have no idea why I even want to do that.  When do we say “skies” instead of “sky”?
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Why is "letter" not plural in "two letter words"?  For me it's very strange as the equivalent in French would be plural but my English friend finds it totally normal.
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While I was answering a question on ELL, I got confused with a  from a fellow user. After I indicated that:     "Do you have any idea to prove it?'   is grammatically correct, the OP commented that "ideas" should be used in place of "idea".  The comment befuddled me. I thought until now that "any" should be followed by singular noun and not plural. So I searched Google and saw it's a huge debate going on and there is no end to it. I got no perfect and trustworthy source. So I thought to post the question here.  So what is the right rule? Should singular or plural be used after "any"?
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Do native speakers of English use verbs in the plural form when speaking about one company? I've come across such use by supposed natives.   Don't you think that it is ungrammatical to use verbs in plural,mentioning one company? Maybe when you speak about one company you imply that it is a team or staff or a group of thousands people working in one place.     Fujitsu send newsletter to all subscribers once a month.    I've made up the above example. It is not a quote.
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I'm having problems with hundred and thousand.   If someone asks you, How many trees are in this forest? Would you answer seven thousand or seven thousands, because thousands are countable?  I know that you usually say seven thousand, but I also know that thousands are countable, so wouldn't that make it seven thousands?  And when you are talking about multiple countable nouns, you would make it plural, but the plural isn't thousand, it's thousands, so it couldn't be that thousand is the plural.  Why isn't it a few thousands? Is it because of an exception in English? Any help would be appreciated.
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I wonder whether there are rules or guidelines regarding plural nouns in nominal compounds. For example a compound university students list. If there are many lists and many universities is it grammatically correct to say universities students lists? Must all elements be in the plural form or can some be left in singular, even though the meaning is plural? I've seen an expression universities student lists; is it correct?
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I usually use the plural form after "some."   Example:     I bought some books about France   But I would also say some source states that France is best toured in fall.  Is there a specific grammar rule? May I say that in the second sentence I am really thinking at a very specific source, so singular is needed?
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I'm confused by the use of plural and singular when Every is use. Which of the following sentences is correct?    Every business has its own unique set of challenges, resulting in a different approach even if they have the same goals. Every businesses have their own unique set of challenges, resulting in different approaches even if they have the same goals.
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I have a question about choice of using this phrases. What different between "Some words" and "a few words"?  What I need to use?
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For example:     There's two options here   or     There are two options here   I hear a lot of people say the first line (or something similar), but isn't that incorrect? Isn't it plural and therefore you should use "there are"?
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What happens if you have a written phrase like     We were looking at the same poster(s).   but with a noun that has an irregular plural? E.g. with baby/babies, would this be the correct form?     We were looking at the same baby(ies).   Or, as a more exotic case:     We were looking at the same matrix(???). (plural is matrices)   Is there a rule or guideline for this?
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I often hear people saying what kind of [singular noun] rather than what kind of a [singular noun].  Are we not supposed to use an article (a) before noun?