多い & 少ない
The adjectives 多い and 少ない respectively mean “many” and “few.” As straight forward as that may seem, using these words pose their own grammatical quirks with which learners must come to grips.
1a. 多い友達がいます。X
1b. 友達がたくさんいます。〇
I have many friends.
2a. 地元には少ない店舗があります。X
2b. 地元には店舗が少ないです。〇
There are few stores in my home town.
As these examples demonstrate, neither 多い nor 少ない may directly modify nouns in the way typical adjectives such as 可愛い (cute) can.
3. あのカメは可愛いですね。
That turtle is cute, isn’t it?
4. 教室には可愛いカメがいます。
There is a cute turtle in the classroom.
In this lesson, we will learn about what exactly defines these adjectives along with their peculiar grammatical restraint.
Quantity/Frequency
Both 多い and 少ない may indicate quantity and frequency in their respective senses.
5a. 公園にはベンチが多いです。〇
5a. 公園には、多いベンチがあります。X
There are many benches in the park.
6. シアトルでは雨が多いです。
There is a lot of rain in Seattle.
7. テキサス州では雨が少ないです。
There is little rain in Texas.
8. 私はお金が少ないです。
I have little money.
Because these adjectives indicate quantity/size of something, there ought to be an element in the sentence indicating what the quantity/size is. Whether that reference point is actually stated within the sentence or is discernable via context is beside the point, but when that reference point cannot be ascertained, they become notably less natural.
9. 沖縄の料理は量が多いですね。
The portions are large in Okinawan cuisine.
10. なぜ高級料理は量が少ないのですか。
Why is it that the portions are small in high class cuisine?
Unlike in English, the word 量 (quantity) is paired with 多い・少ない as opposed to 大きい・小さい. This is because they can be more literally translated as “for an amount to be plenty/small” respectively.
11. 建物が多いです。（?）
There are many buildings.
12. 漢字が少ないです。（?）
There are few Kanji.
Exs. 11-12 are not inherently ungrammatical. What warrants the (?) is a hypothetical lack of context in which there is no obvious reference point. When a reference point is obvious, there is no problem with using these quantitative adjectives, and the same can be said of their English counterparts.
13. 「東京はどうでしたか。」「建物が多かったです。」
“How was Tokyo?” “There were many buildings.”
14. 「町の市場はどうですか」「大きい魚が少ないです」
“How is the town’s market?” “There are few large fish.”
Grammatically speaking, being restricted to the end of a sentence is synonymous with being restricted to being the predicate of the sentence. This also applies to when they are the predicate of a subordinate clause.
15. この周辺には、ベンチが多い公園があります。
There is a park with many benches nearby.
16. 店舗が少ないところに住んでいます。
I live in a place where there are few stores.
That being said, with subjects being omittable in so many instances, when discussing whether there are any instances in which 多い and 少ない may directly modify nouns, we must first exclude examples where their seemingly isolated state is the result of a dropped subject.
17. [∅]多いときには、月に三度も風邪にかかることもあります。
At times when I have many of them, I get colds upwards of three times a month.
Dropped Subject (∅): [風邪にかかること].
18. [∅]少ないところでも、１００ｍｍを記録した。
Even in areas where there was little, (they) recorded 100mm.
Dropped Subject (∅): [雨].
19. [∅]少ない人でも月に２千ドルの収入があるということが分かった。
Even for those individuals with little (income), it was found out that they have incomes of $2,000 a month.
Dropped Subject (∅): 収入.
20. [∅]多いはずがない。
There is no way there would be lots of it.
Dropped Subject (∅): “It.”
Note that a clear reference point is not justification to place these adjectives directly before a noun with the hopes of them constituting as a subordinate clause.
21a. ムンバイは人口が多い街です。〇
21b. ムンバイは多い人口の街です。X
Mumbai is a town with a large population.
22. 画数が少ない漢字が多い。
There are lots of Kanji with few strokes.
23a. 画数が多い漢字は、実は、多くありません。〇
23b. 少ない漢字は、日は、画数が多くありません。X
As for Kanji with many strokes, in actuality, there aren’t that many.
Generally speaking, when you wish to describe “many/few X,” rather than using 多い・少ない, you should use 多くの・少しの respectively. These forms are examples of 連体詞, as they can only be used directly before a noun and may not form predicates of their own.
24. 大阪には、多くのお寺があるかどうか知りません。
I don’t know whether there are many temples in Osaka.
25. 少しの金額から大きな稼ぎを作る。
To make large earnings from a small amount of money.
In the case of 多くの, it is synonymous with other phrases, particularly the no-adjectival nouns たくさんの (lots) and 大勢の (lots of people). How they differ, is while 多くの must always be a perceptually plausible reference point for the greater than usual quantity/frequency, these synonyms merely describe rough quantities. This also examples why たくさん as opposed to 多く appears in Ex. 1b.
26. たくさんの・大勢の｝人が集まりました。
Many people gathered.
27. 普段より多くの人が集まりました。
Many more people than usual gathered.
Yet, it would appear that 少ない can occasionally directly modify nouns; however, it can only be paired with uncountable nouns1, and more specifically, those that are attainable entities for which there is not enough of, making it more synonymous with say わずかな (few/scarce) than 少しの. Whereas 少ない・わずかな pertain to a relative lack/insufficient of something, 少しの merely describes a small quantity.
This innovative use of 少ない is not accepted by all speakers, but the limited environment in which it appears, as demonstrated further with the examples below, is predictable. Nonetheless, rewording a phrase with a bare [少ない + N] component in such a way that 少ない is instead a part of a subordinate clause will always be the more grammatically sound approach. As such, in the examples below, the most probable complement to bring this about is left in parentheses. The parentheses also serve to indicate the relatively minor impact said complement has on the Japanese sentence and the English translation.
28. 少ないお金で暮らす人がたくさんいます。
There is a lot of people who live with [little/not enough] money.
29. （依然と）少ない給料でお金を貯める。
To save money with little income.
30. 様々な、（数の）少ない材料でできています。
It’s made with various, scarce materials.
31. 私たちは今回、（前回より）もっと少ない時間で達成しました。
We accomplished it in far less time this time.
参照: 中東 (1996) -『不定数量形容詞「多い」「少ない」の意味論的・統語論的考察 』
- Uncountable nouns (不可算名詞) in English refers to nouns that usually cannot be expressed in a plural form. As Japanese has no true plural forms for its nouns, the concept more specifically relates to nouns whose quantity is not perceived in context by its individual components. ↩︎