少 (shǎo): The Chinese Character for few / little
few / little
少 means “few / little” in Chinese. It is pronounced shǎo. Listen to the sound above, then learn an everyday use below.
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How to write 少
Stroke order
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One way to use 少.
少 (shǎo) means few / little. The expression 很少 (hěn shǎo) means “few / very little”. One shared photo among twenty landscapes is a small number. 很少 means few or very little. Use shǎo here, not shào. Example sentence: 我们的合照很少。 Wǒ men de hé zhào hěn shǎo. — We have very few photos together.
Remember 少 Through a Story: One More Ordinary Picture
1 min illustrated story · A fictional memory aid for 少
Lin and Alex were choosing pictures for a shared album. Lin’s phone held bridges, trees, windows, and several excellent photographs of lunch. Alex had more streets and almost the same lunch. They kept swiping, looking for a picture with both of them in it.
After twenty landscape pictures, they found one photograph together from a walk months earlier. Lin paused over it. They had plenty of pictures of places, but almost none of themselves sharing an ordinary day. She put the phone flat on the kitchen table.
They decided to take a picture there, with the dishes still drying behind them. Alex propped the phone securely on a shelf and set its timer. Lin moved a tall bottle out of the way, then stood beside him.
They stood beside each other until the shutter sounded. The picture showed them both facing the camera, with an ordinary kitchen behind them. Lin added it to the album between two river views. There were still few pictures together, but now there was one more.
Can you recognize it?
Which character means few (a small quantity)?
Make 少 part of your Hanzi.
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