How to say “few” in 47 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.
It is commonest in Korean, where 수 is the 6th most used word.
- Afrikaans party some, a few #528
- Albanian pak #72
- Arabic قل to be few, to be little #380
- Bengali কম #303
- Bosnian malo little, few, some #81
- Bulgarian малко few, little #84
- Chinese 幾個 a few; several; some; a handful #1,176
- Croatian malo little, few, some #84
- Czech několik several, a few #696
- Danish få #75
- Dutch minder little, few, not much, not many #602
- English couple Two or a few, a small number of #493
- Esperanto kelkaj a few, several #413
- Estonian vähesed few, little, scarce #2,195
- Finnish vähän #139
- Galician poucos #797
- Georgian ცოტას few people, few something #749
- German paar some; few; a few #197
- Greek μερικές few, some #336
- Hebrew מעט little, few #453
- Hindi कम #192
- Hungarian pár some, a few, a couple #163
- Icelandic færri #2,301
- Indonesian beberapa a few #110
- Italian qualche #182
- Korean 수 a few, several #6
- Lithuanian mažai little, few #645
- Macedonian неколку a few, several, some #142
- Malay baru just, recently, a few moments ago #112
- Malayalam കുറച്ച് some, few #55
- Norwegian få #70
- Persian کم few, little #148
- Polish kilka more than two but less than ten; several; few #217
- Portuguese poucos #1,795
- Romanian câteva some, a little, a few #224
- Russian мало little, few #815
- Serbian malo little, few, some #79
- Slovak málo little, few #621
- Slovenian malo #87
- Swedish få #80
- Tagalog kaunti few; a little; a small quantity of #1,210
- Tamil சிலர் some people; a few people #709
- Telugu కొన్ని some, a few #40
- Turkish birkaç a few #185
- Ukrainian кілька several, a few, some #268
- Urdu چند a few, some, several #359
- Vietnamese ít few, little #374
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.