Poco VS Un po’
POCO and UN PO’ are two expressions which mean “a little – a bit”.
Although looking similar, they have different meanings.
1. POCO = little-few
POCO can be used as adverb of quantity (answering the question “how much?”) and as adjective (a few of something).
It mostly implies a negative meaning, the opposite of “molto” (= a lot).
– “Luca parla POCO”
= Luca doesn’t talk much
– “Luca parla POCO italiano”
= Luca speaks little Italian
– “Luca conosce POCHE parole cinesi”
= Luca knows a few Chinese words
2. UN PO’ = a little-a bif of-some
Similarly to “poco”, UN PO’ can be used as adverb and adjective (when followed by “di”), as well as interjection (= “come on!”).
It refers to a quantity that can be little or big according to the context, and it mostly implies a positive meaning.
– “Parli inglese?” – “UN PO’!”
= Do you speak English? – A little!
– “Luca parla UN PO’ DI italiano”
= Luca speaks a little bit of Italian
– “Scusa, ho UN PO’ DI cose da fare, ti richiamo”
= Sorry, I’m a little busy, I’ll call you back
– “Dimmi UN PO’!”
= (Come on) Tell me!
3. POCO vs UN PO’
In some contexts, POCO and UN PO’ can have almost opposite meanings, where POCO means “little” but UN PO’ means “quite a bit”:
– “Oggi ho POCO da fare”
= Today I don’t have much to do
but:
– “Oggi ho UN PO’ da fare”
– Today I have quite a bit to do
– “Ho invitato POCHI amici alla mia festa”
= I invited few friends to my party
but:
– “Ho invitato UN PO’ DI amici alla mia festa”
= I invited some friends to my party
and 
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