little
part of speech
adjective (little, littler, littlest — usually smaller, smallest); determiner, pronoun (little, less, least; a little); adverb
meaning for a pupil
1) Little means small in size: a little house. tree →
2) Little means young: my little brother. tree →
3) «A little» means a small amount, some: a little milk. tree →
4) «Little» without «a» means not much, almost none: little time. tree →
5) As an adverb, a little means slightly: a little tired. tree →
sense in the lessons
«a little revision» = a short review; «a little box» = a small one; in everyday life «little by little» (slowly), «a little bit», «little finger»; in stories Little Red Riding Hood, the little pig
examples
- And our father said: Go again, buy us a little food. (Torah GEN.44.25, JPS 1917) tree →
- and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl; (Torah LEV.11.17, JPS 1917) tree →
- the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl; (Torah DEU.14.16, JPS 1917) tree →
- Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. (Writings PRO.16.8, JPS 1917) tree →
- Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, (Writings JOB.10.20, JPS 1917) tree →
- They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. (Writings JOB.21.11, JPS 1917) tree →
- First, a little revision of what we learned before … tree →
- A little box holds 4 crayons. tree →
- My little sister is three. tree →
- Can I have a little more juice? tree →
- There is little water left in the bottle. tree →
- I am a little tired after the race. tree →
- Little by little the snowman melted. tree →
- The three little pigs built three houses. tree →
- "I can!" said the little Rabbit. tree →
note
No operation clue. «a little» goes with things you cannot count (a little sugar); «a few» with things you can (a few sweets). Trap: «a little» is an amount you cannot count exactly, not a number.
In the corpora
- Let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and recline yourselves under the tree.
- And our father said: Go again, buy us a little food.
- By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.
- and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl;
- Our wives and our little ones will be a prey; were it not better for us to return into Egypt?'
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «little» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.