Re-write the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. Make other changes that may be necessary, but do not change the meaning of each sentence.
Not many people read for pleasure these days. (Begin: Few ..................)
Topic: Transformation — negative to affirmative
Answer
Few people read for pleasure these days.
"Not many" and "FEW" mean the same thing, so the transformation is a straight substitution and the negative disappears — FEW already carries the negative sense.
Writing "Few people do not read for pleasure" would be a double negative and would reverse the meaning entirely.
THE DISTINCTION WORTH LEARNING, because it is examined: FEW means hardly any (negative in sense), while A FEW means some (positive). "Few people came" is a disappointment; "a few people came" is not. The same applies to LITTLE and A LITTLE with uncountable nouns.
Here the original is negative, so FEW without the article is correct.