Learn English – “For example” vs. “just to name a few”

"I have a few friends" is just the same as saying "I have some friends".

"I have few friends", however, implies that you have only a few friends (as opposed to many). In some contexts (not always!), it can also imply that you don't feel very well about it, that you wish you had more friends.

Also, note that there is a very common expression "quite a few", which is a trap for foreign learners because it looks like it should mean "rather few, very few" — but it does not. It means the exact opposite thing: "a large or significant number, many". So, saying "I have quite a few friends" is the same as saying "I have quite a lot of friends".

Let's have a look at two more examples:

• "A few people think that smoking is healthy."
  = Some people think that smoking is healthy.

  "Few people think that smoking is healthy."
  = Only a few people, a very small number, think that smoking is healthy; most think that it is not.

  "Quite a few people think that smoking is healthy."
  = Many people, a (surprisingly) large number, think that smoking is healthy.

• "This car comes in a few colors."
  = This vehicle model is available in several colors, a number/selection of colors, but less than many.

  "This car comes in few colors."
  = This model is available in only a few colors, just a few colors; less than a few. The speaker probably wishes there were more to choose from.

  "This car comes in quite a few colors."
  = This model is available in more colors than you might think; quite a bunch/variety/selection/gamut of; rather many; the speaker didn't really expect to have such a choice, or thinks you are unlikely to expect it.

We would only use the few when we want a noun phrase which points to a small group (often with a sense of them being an élite, but not necessarily).

My work isn't popular, but the few who do enjoy it treat me well.

We would only use a bare few when pointing out the number but using another noun to show what we are talking about:

There were many apples, but few were edible.

There are few television shows that I enjoy.

We may use the two together for effect:

We admire the bravery of the few who fell at Thermopylae, and the few who fell at Chaeronea, precisely because they were so few.

Here the last few is in this bare use, after two uses of "the few". (On a related, but only slightly on-topic note "The Few" capitalised refers to the pilots of the Battle of Britain).

In the case of your sentences, we have a clause that has a noun pointing out what we are talking about. After that we can either use the bare form and depend upon this noun to let us know what we are talking about, or we can use "the few" form and have that be a noun in that second clause.

So in this case, both are valid, and the meaning is the same, though arrived at in a slightly different way. All the sentences I give here use few and the few in ways that are outside of this overlap and couldn't have any of the uses switched.