Little, Least, Small
Little as an adjective refers to something that is smaller in size or amount; a small amount of something like food, drink; young (when we were little our hairs need no colouring but as we grow and become little many colour the hairs), young (Who is she? She is my little child), to emphasize (little body, little hotel, little shorts), something that is unimportant
Though she be but little, she is fierce!” –A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare Little has multiple meanings and functions as a noun, adjective, adverb and as a pronoun: refer to a standard dictionary for its comprehensive meaning. It also overlaps with the word ‘small’ in some of its meanings (Luxembourg is a small/little country in Europe) and also has distinct meanings on its own.
Little as an adjective refers to something that is smaller in size or amount; a small amount of something like food, drink; young (when we were little our hairs need no colouring but as we grow and become little many colour the hairs), young (Who is she? She is my little child), to emphasize (little body, little hotel, little shorts), something that is unimportant
We all have little worries in life! You say ‘a little while ago’ [not ‘a small while ago] I read OH MY WORD! Little is used as determiners in sentences: many people have little money. If you fail to educate yourself, you will have little choices as how to live and where to live.
A little refers to something or to an amount: People do well if only they get little help/advice/support from the State, too.As an adverb it means slightly, slowly or gradually, not much, more or better Little by little means slowly or gradually: if you fail to keep watch on what you eat, little by little you put on unrequired weight into your body. People sleep little longer or more on holidays. Little also functions as a noun, and pronoun (as a quantifier) referring to something small, minor.
Can you hear me? A little! Small is an adjective and its superlatives are smaller and smallest meaning something small in size or amount when compared to other things or that is not of average size or amount, and it overlaps in this sense with ‘little’. Small also means ashamed, weak. I feel small for the errors of the past.
Smallness (noun) should not haunt us. Small letters are lowercase letters, not capital letters or uppercase letters. Have you ever read the terms and conditions when you download an app on the mobile phone? No. they are a gobbledygook, and printed in small (adverb: in small size) letters. And, we have sizes in clothes: small (noun), medium, and big and XXXL. Least means anything that is smaller in amount or number, and functions as an adverb, determiner and pronoun. What is the least you can expect from a parent?
