Automattic / Automattic/harper

Harper should flag "little" used where "few" is meant

Open
#2,690 1 comment 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
enhancement harper-core linting
Dominant language
Rust
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Description

This issue is somewhat like confusing "much" and "many," but I believe it reflects a more recent shift in usage.

Here's an example I found on Wikipedia:
> In a 1998 retrospective review, Allgame found Part II to be "barely a sequel" for it having very little differences from the original game, although liked its challenge and blocky graphics.

This sentence actually means there are multiple differences, at least one of which is small.

The problem lies in the word "little," which has two distinct senses:
- When used with a **countable noun** (singular or plural), "little" typically means "small in size."
- When used with a **mass (uncountable) noun**, "little" means "not much" or "not of great consequence."

In this specific example, "differences" is a plural countable noun, so "little differences" is incorrect because "little" does not properly quantify plural countable nouns.

The correct forms for Harper to suggest would be:
- "having very **few** differences from the original game" (using "few" for plural countable nouns), or
- "having very little **difference** from the original game" (using "little" with the singular mass noun "difference").

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

No source file or test is named. Start by locating Harper's existing handling for confusing "much" and "many", then trace how countable and mass nouns are classified. Done means the example with "very little differences" receives an appropriate suggestion for "very few differences" or "very little difference", with coverage for the stated senses.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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