少
few; little; less
shǎo
What does 少 mean?
少 (shǎo) means 'few / little / not much' — the opposite of 多 (duō, 'many/much'). It's a stative adjective: 朋友很少 'I have few friends,' 钱少 'little money.' Two things English speakers should know: first, 少 covers both 'few' (countable: few people) and 'little' (uncountable: little money), unlike English, which distinguishes them; second, 少 has a second reading — pronounced shào (fourth tone), it means 'young' and appears in 少年 (shàonián, 'youth / teenager') and the surname/title 少爷 (shàoye, 'young master'). HSK 1 only tests the shǎo reading. The most common HSK 1 pattern is the 多少 (duōshǎo) question word — literally 'much-few' — meaning 'how much / how many,' used for numbers above ten or unknown quantities (多少钱 'how much money').
Note: Note: read as shào (fourth tone), 少 means 'young' (少年 'youth,' 少女 'young woman'). HSK 1 only covers the shǎo 'few/little' sense.
Character breakdown
few; little; less (also read shào: young)
Memory hook: 少 looks like 小 ('small') with an extra slash — when a small amount has even less, you get 少.
Example sentences
我的朋友很少。
Wǒ de péngyǒu hěn shǎo.
I have very few friends.
neutral
请少放盐。
Qǐng shǎo fàng yán.
Please add less salt.
polite
这里人很少。
Zhèlǐ rén hěn shǎo.
There are very few people here.
neutral
你有多少钱？
Nǐ yǒu duōshǎo qián?
How much money do you have?
spoken
Common phrases with 少
Don't confuse 少 with
小 ('small') describes SIZE; 少 ('few') describes QUANTITY. 小猫 'small cat' vs 猫少 'few cats.' Beginners constantly mix these because the characters look alike (one stroke apart) and both translate as 'small' in some English phrases.
省 ('save / province') contains 少 as its bottom component, but means something different. Don't be thrown off by the visual similarity — 省钱 'save money' is not 少钱.