少 meaning in English

shǎo

few; less

HSK 1adjectiveverb4 strokes

Meaning of 少

Definitions from CC-CEDICT.

shǎo

few
less
to lack
to be missing
to stop (doing sth)
seldom

shào

young

How to use 少

少 (shǎo) is mostly used as an adjective meaning few or little, and as a verb meaning to be missing something. It often comes after 很, as in 这里人很少。(Zhèlǐ rén hěn shǎo.) There are very few people here.

少 (shǎo) looks like 小 (xiǎo, small) with an extra slanted stroke at the bottom. Picture something small with one more piece being taken away, so you end up with even less, or few.

Common mistake: Learners often confuse 少 (shǎo, few) with 小 (xiǎo, small) because they look and sound alike. Remember that 少 is about quantity and 小 is about size, so a small room is 小房间, not 少房间.

少 in example sentences

Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.

她tā在zài这zhè里lǐ有yǒu不bù少shǎo朋péng友yǒu。

She has a lot of friends here.

很hěn少shǎo有yǒu人rén知zhī道dào怎zěn么me做zuò。

Few people know how to do it.

所suǒ有yǒu人rén里lǐ，我wǒ说shuō话huà最zuì少shǎo。

Out of everyone there, I spoke the least.

我wǒ感gǎn觉jué又yòu变biàn成chéng了le少shào年nián。

I feel like I'm a teenager again.

这zhè表biǎo明míng我wǒ们men对duì自zì身shēn的de认rèn知zhī很hěn少shǎo。

That shows how little we know of ourselves.

Stroke order for each character

Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.

少 shǎo · few · 4 strokes

Related words

Words that share a character with 少.

多少	duōshao	number; amount; somewhat
不少	bù shǎo	many; quite a few; a good number of
少年	shàonián	early youth; youngster
青少年	qīng-shàonián	adolescent; youth
少数	shǎoshù	small number; few
至少	zhìshǎo	at least; (to say the) least
缺少	quēshǎo	lack; shortage of
减少	jiǎnshǎo	to lessen; to decrease; to reduce; to lower
少儿	shào'ér	child
少女	shàonǚ	girl; young lady
少林寺	Shàolín Sì	Shaolin Temple, Buddhist monastery famous for its kung fu monks
少见	shǎojiàn	rare; seldom seen; (formal) it's a rare pleasure to see you

Questions about 少

What does 少 mean?

少 (shǎo) means "few; less" and is used as a adjective and verb.

How do you write 少?

少 is made of 1 character: 少 (4 strokes). That is 4 strokes in total.

Is 少 an HSK word?

Yes. 少 is on the HSK 1 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.

When is 少 pronounced shào instead of shǎo?

It is read shào when it means young, as in 少年 (shàonián, youngster) and 青少年 (qīng-shàonián, adolescent). In most other words, such as 至少 (zhìshǎo, at least) and 少数 (shǎoshù, few), it is shǎo.

Why does 不少 mean many if 少 means few?

不少 (bù shǎo) literally means not few, so it expresses a fairly large amount, like quite a few. For example, 他有不少朋友。(Tā yǒu bù shǎo péngyou.) means He has quite a few friends.