How to say “few” in 47 different languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
- 幾個/t͡ɕi²¹⁴⁻²¹ kɤ⁵¹/ Chinese
- 수[sʰu] Korean
- कम/kəm/ Hindi
- μερικές/ˌmeriˈces/ Greek
- কম/kɔm/ Bengali
- کم[kʰʲæm] Persian
“few” in Italian: qualche · Portuguese: poucos · Chinese: 幾個 · Korean: 수 · Hindi: कम · Turkish: birkaç · Greek: μερικές
It is commonest in Korean, where 수 is the 6th most used word.
Few in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans party/pɐrˈtɛɪ/ some, a few #528
- Albanian pak/pak/ #72
- Arabic قل/qalla/ to be few, to be little #380
- Bengali কম/kɔm/ #303
- Bosnian malo/mâlo/ little, few, some #81
- Bulgarian малко[ˈmaɫko] few, little #84
- Chinese 幾個/t͡ɕi²¹⁴⁻²¹ kɤ⁵¹/ a few; several; some; a handful #1,176
- Croatian malo/mâlo/ little, few, some #84
- Czech několik[ˈɲɛkolɪk] several, a few #696
- Danish få[ˈfɔˀ] #75
- Dutch minder/ˈmɪn.dər/ little, few, not much, not many #602
- English couple/ˈkʌp.əl/ Two or a few, a small number of #493
- Esperanto kelkaj/ˈkelkai̯/ a few, several #413
- Estonian vähesed/ˈvæhesed̥/ few, little, scarce #2,195
- Finnish vähän/ˈʋæhæn/ #139
- Galician poucos/ˈpowkos/ #797
- Georgian ცოტას[t͡sʰo̞tʼäs] few people, few something #749
- German paar/paːr/ some; few; a few #197
- Greek μερικές/ˌmeriˈces/ few, some #336
- Hebrew מעט/meˈ(ʔ)at/ little, few #453
- Hindi कम/kəm/ #192
- Hungarian pár[ˈpaːr] some, a few, a couple #163
- Icelandic færri/ˈfairɪ/ #2,301
- Indonesian beberapa/bəbəˈrapa/ a few #110
- Italian qualche/ˈkwal.ke/ #182
- Korean 수[sʰu] a few, several #6
- Lithuanian mažai[ˈmaːʒɐj] little, few #645
- Macedonian неколку[ˈnɛkɔɫku] a few, several, some #142
- Malay baru/ˈbaru/ just, recently, a few moments ago #112
- Malayalam കുറച്ച്/kurɐt͡ʃt͡ʃɨ/ some, few #55
- Norwegian få/ˈfoː/ #70
- Persian کم[kʰʲæm] few, little #148
- Polish kilka/ˈkil.ka/ more than two but less than ten; several; few #217
- Portuguese poucos/ˈpo(w).kus/ #1,795
- Romanian câteva/ˌkɨteˈva/ some, a little, a few #224
- Russian мало[ˈmaɫə] little, few #815
- Serbian malo/mâlo/ little, few, some #79
- Slovak málo/maːlɔ/ little, few #621
- Slovenian malo/màːlɔ/ #87
- Swedish få/foː/ #80
- Tagalog kaunti/kaʔunˈtiʔ/ few; a little; a small quantity of #1,210
- Tamil சிலர்/tʃɪlɐɾ/ some people; a few people #709
- Telugu కొన్ని/ˈkonni/ some, a few #40
- Turkish birkaç/biɾˈkat͡ʃ/ a few #185
- Ukrainian кілька[ˈkʲilʲkɐ] several, a few, some #268
- Urdu چند/t͡ʃənd̪/ a few, some, several #359
- Vietnamese ít[ʔit̚˧˦] few, little #374
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.