few vs hardly a

few is a noun but hardly a is not a noun.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
few	Yes	Yes	No	No
hardly a	No	Yes	No	No

few (noun)	hardly a (noun)
a small elite group

few (adjective)	hardly a (adjective)
a quantifier that can be used with count nouns and is often preceded by `a'; a small but indefinite number	very few