少 shǎo / shào in a sentence
Few (lack - little - be missing); Young (teenager)
少 (shǎo / shào) means Few (lack - little - be missing), Young (teenager). Below are 24 of the 109 sentences on this site that use it — with pinyin, an English translation and audio. All of them were written by hand; none is machine generated.
Dictionary examples
商店里人很 少 。
Shāngdiàn li rén hěn shǎo.
There are few people in the store.
Dictionary example · HSK 1 · 少
你们班有多 少 人？
Nǐmen bān yǒu duōshao rén?
How many people are in your class?
Dictionary example · HSK 1 · 多少
这件衣服多 少 钱？
Zhè jiàn yīfu duōshao qián?
How much is this piece of clothing?
Dictionary example · HSK 1 · 钱
平时他很 少 喝酒。
Píngshí tā hěn shǎo hē jiǔ.
He rarely drinks under normal circumstances.
Dictionary example · HSK 4 · 平时
Reading these is one thing; producing 少 yourself is another. Cloze in Context takes a sentence from this same bank, removes one word and asks you to put it back — beginner, intermediate and advanced.
From the graded readers
我问：“这件衣服多 少 钱？”
wǒ wèn:" zhèijiàn yīfu duōshao qián?"
I asked, "How much is this?"
Graded reader · HSK 1 · Going Shopping
我昨天晚上工作到很晚，睡得很 少 。
wǒ zuótiān wǎnshang gōngzuò dào hěn wǎn, shuì dehěn shǎo / shào.
I worked late last night and slept very little.
Graded reader · HSK 2 · Late for Work
他说：“多 少 人想进这样的公司都进不去。”
tā shuō:" duōshao rén xiǎng jìn zhèyàng de / dì gōngsī dōu jìn bù qù."
He said, "Plenty of people would give anything to get into a company like that."
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Changing Jobs
医生说我睡眠太 少 ，让我至 少 休息两个星期。
yīshēng shuō wǒ shuìmián tài shǎo / shào, ràng wǒ zhìshǎo xiūxi liǎng gè xīngqī.
The doctor said I was badly short of sleep and told me to rest for at least two weeks.
Graded reader · HSK 4 · Facing Pressure
爸爸问：“多 少 钱？”服务员说：“八十块。”
bàba wèn:" duōshao qián?" fúwùyuán shuō:" bāshí kuài."
Dad asked, "How much is it?" The waiter said, "Eighty yuan."
Graded reader · HSK 1 · At the Restaurant
From the travel phrasebook
大概多 少 钱？
Dàgài duōshao qián?
Roughly how much will it be?
Travel phrasebook · Taxis and ride-hailing
有多 少 工人？
Yǒu duōshao gōngrén?
How many workers do you have?
Travel phrasebook · Trade fairs and factory visits
少 appears in 109 sentences on this site; the 24 shortest and most direct are shown. The rest are on the pages they were written for — the graded readers, the phrasebook and the grammar library.
Words that contain 少
Each of these has sentences of its own, so you can see the character doing a different job in each one.
Questions about 少
How is 少 used in a sentence?
This page shows 109 sentences using 少 (shǎo / shào, "Few (lack - little - be missing), Young (teenager)"), each with pinyin, an English translation and audio. Every one of them was written by hand for this site.
Are these sentences machine generated?
No. They come from the site's own dictionary examples, graded readers, travel phrasebook and grammar library — all written by a person. A word with no sentence gets no page here, rather than a page of invented ones.
Why do some sentences show 少 inside a longer word?
Because that is where a single character usually lives. Seeing 少 inside the words it builds is how the character stops being an isolated symbol and starts being something you can read.
Is 少 an HSK word?
Yes — 少 is on the official HSK 1 vocabulary list, and you can study it with the rest of that list on the HSK 1 page.
Where can I see the full entry for 少?
The dictionary page for 少 has its stroke order, its traditional form, every sense the dictionary lists and a character-by-character breakdown. It is linked at the top of this page.
Keep going
Read the full entry for 少, write a sentence of your own and check it in the Pinyin Annotator, drill it with HSK 1 flashcards, or search the whole sentence bank for another word.
Another word
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