少ない
すくない
sukunai
= few; scarce; little (in number or quantity)
少ない (sukunai) is the essential Japanese adjective for ‘few’ or ‘scarce’ — a word learners need as soon as they want to talk about not having enough of something, from free time to budget to opportunities.
少ない means ‘small in number or amount’ and is used where English uses ‘few’ (for countable things) or ‘little’ (for uncountable amounts). It inflects as a regular i-adjective: 少なく (sukunaku) adverbially, 少なくない (sukunakunai) in the negative, and 少なかった (sukunakatta) in the past. Unlike its near-synonym ちょっと (chotto, a little), 少ない is specifically adjectival and predicative — it modifies nouns (少ない人数, sukunai ninzuu, a small number of people) or follows nouns as a predicate (収入が少ない, shuunyuu ga sukunai, the income is low/scarce). Closely related is 少し (sukoshi, a little/a few) which functions as a quantity adverb, while 少ない is the descriptive adjective. Its antonym is 多い (ooi, many/a lot).
Learners frequently confuse 少ない (sukunai, few/scarce) with 少し (sukoshi, a little). Remember: 少ない is an adjective that describes a noun attribute (人が少ない, hito ga sukunai, there are few people), while 少し is an adverb of degree (少し待って, sukoshi matte, wait a little). Also note the double-vowel reading: すくない not すくなし — the い at the end is the standard i-adjective ending, and native speakers never shorten it. In comparisons: 去年より少ない (kyonen yori sukunai, fewer than last year) follows the standard より comparison pattern.
少 is a simple but elegant character: four strokes that suggest a small pile reduced to even smaller pieces — the image of sand or grain scattered sparsely. It appears in 少年 (shounen, young boy), 少女 (shoujo, young girl), 少数 (shousuu, a small number), and 減少 (genshou, decrease/decline). The shift from 少 to its adjective form 少ない (adding ない) is an interesting morphological quirk: the kanji alone reads すく(nai) with ない as the i-adjective ending rather than a separate word.
Everyday use
今月は出費が多くて、貯金が少なくなってしまった。
Kongetsu wa shuppi ga ookute, chokin ga sukunaku natte shimatta.
I spent a lot this month, so my savings have gotten low.
Formal / Cultural context
本日は参加者が少ないため、次回に延期いたします。
Honjitsu wa sankasha ga sukunai tame, jikai ni enki itashimasu.
Due to the small number of participants today, we will postpone to the next session.
Casual / Social Media
今週は予定が少ないから、やっとゆっくりできそう〜
Konshuu wa yotei ga sukunai kara, yatto yukkuri dekisou~
I have few plans this week, so I might finally be able to relax~
少ない appears with particular frequency in discussions about Japan’s demographic challenges. The country’s rapidly declining birthrate has made phrases like 子どもが少ない (kodomo ga sukunai, there are fewer children) and 少子化 (shoushika, declining birth rate — literally ‘small number of children phenomenon’) central to political and social discourse. The word 少ない in this context carries genuine national anxiety, appearing in newspaper headlines, government policy documents, and everyday conversations about aging towns and shrinking school populations.
In Japanese work culture, 少ない is common in complaints about inadequate resources: 時間が少ない (jikan ga sukunai, there isn’t enough time), 予算が少ない (yosan ga sukunai, the budget is tight). Japanese culture’s emphasis on group effort means that being short-staffed (人手が少ない, hitode ga sukunai) is taken seriously as a team problem rather than an individual one. The word quietly captures the tension between high expectations and limited means that many Japanese workers navigate daily.