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Few or phew?

few is a determiner meaning “An indefinite, but usually small, number of”; phew is an interjection meaning “Used to express relief of tension, fatigue, or surprise”. Use few as a determiner and phew as an interjection. They sound the same (/fjuː/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) few is about 288 times as common as phew.

feworphew

What is the difference between few and phew?

fewphew
Part of speechdeterminer, pronouninterjection
Meaning

An indefinite, but usually small, number of

Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of

Few people, few things

Used to express relief of tension, fatigue, or surprise

Used to show disgust

ExampleThere are a few cars (=some, but a relatively small number) in the streetPhew, that took a long time to cook!
Formsfewer, less, fewest, leastwhew, pew
Pronunciation/fjuː/ /fɪu̯//fjuː/ [ɸj̊u̥˥˩] /fɪu̯/
In writing398 times per million words1.4 times per million words

Sources: few and phew in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of few and phew

few

  1. 1

    determiner An indefinite, but usually small, number of

    There are a few cars (=some, but a relatively small number) in the street

  2. 2

    pronoun Few people, few things

    Many are called, but few are chosen

  3. 3

    determiner Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of

    Very few did she have not to go there, did she?

  4. 4

    determiner Obscuring one to two oktas (eighths) of the sky

    Tonight: A few clouds. Increasing cloudiness overnight

  5. 5

    determiner (US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated

phew

  1. 1

    interjection Used to express relief of tension, fatigue, or surprise

    Phew, that took a long time to cook!

  2. 2

    interjection Used to show disgust

    Phew, it stinks in here!

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, few or phew?

few appears 398 times per million words; phew 1.4 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words