少ない・すくない

Adjective (い) (Basic ㊦ 427)

Small in number of quantity.

Equivalent: Few; a small number of; little; a small quantity of ~

この町はいいレストランが少ない・少ないです。: In this town good restaurants are few.
この大学は女子学生が少ないです。: The number of female students at this college is small.
日本は犯罪が少ない。: There are few crimes in Japan.
日本語が書ける外国人は大変少ない。: Foreigners who can write Japanese are very few.

Notes

1. 少ない cannot be used before a noun, except in a relative clause where 少ない is the predicate of the subject of the relative clause.

*この大学は少ない女子学生がいます。

(Complementiser phrase: Example (a))

木が少ない町に住みたくありません。
I don't want to live in a town where there are few trees.

2. The distinction between English 'few' vs. 'a few' can be expressed by 少ない and 少しは as in (3) below.

a. 日本語が分かるアメリカ人は少ない。
Literally: Americans who can understand Japanese are few. (= Few Americans can understand Japanese.)

b. 日本語が分かるアメリカ人は少しはいる。
There are a few Americans who can understand Japanese.

【Related Expression】

少ない differs from a similar word 僅か(だ) in both meaning and use. The latter means 'insignificant number or amount of ~' and is used before a noun or in a predicate position or as an adverb. Only in [1a] below can 僅かだ be replaced by 少ない.

[1]

a. 私が持っているお金はわずかだ。
The money I possess is very little.

b. わずかなお金で暮らしている。
He is living with a paltry sum of money.

c. あの人はわずかのことですぐ怒る。
He gets angry easily over a trifling matter.

d. その時僕はわずか(に)六つでした。
At that time I was merely six years old.