nihongo wo benkyou shitai

Yeah, I know I haven't finished the giving & receiving concept, but I was going through this last night and decided it would be worth blogging. I'm not even sure which JLPT level it is, but I'll deal with that later on. Today we'll look at the differences between saying 'few' and 'a few'

The inference here is that 'few' implies a negative connotation; for example:

There are few places to see in Basingstoke.
He has few friends in Japan.

Compare that to 'a few' which doesn't carry the negative connotation:

There are a few places to visit in Basingsoke.
He has a few friends in Japan.

Let's look at each usage in turn.

A Few

The format of this is pretty easy. Simply take 何, follow it with the relevant counter and then add か. The hardest bit is getting the counter right! Maybe an example will help.

English:	I have seen a few films recently.
Jenglish:	[recently][films][a few][seen]
日本語：	最近映画を何本か観た。

English:	He has a few friends in Japan.
Jenglish:	[Japan][in][he][friends][a few][has]
日本語：	日本に彼は友達が何人かいる。

Few

Here, we can we a combination of 少し (meaning few) and しか which used with a verb in negative form means 'just'.

English:	I have seen few films recently.
Jenglish:	[recently][films][few][seen]
日本語：	最近映画を少ししか観ない。

English:	He has few friends in Japan
Jenglish:	[Japan][in][he][friends][few][has]
日本語：	日本に彼は友達が少ししかない。

Let's check out the Internet and see some other examples. However, from my Googling, I get the impression that the use of 少ししか is not quite as straight-forward as I would have thought.

Example 1:

This example comes from here.

日本語：	時折、愛が地球に十分にないように思えたり、少ししかないような不安を感じることもあります。
Jenglish:	[sometimes], [love] [SP] [the Earth] [in] [enough] [not] [looks like] [seems], [few] [anxiety][feel][also]

Well, this is a tough one. I feel like I know what the translation is, but I just can't get put together the English equivalent. So, despite it probably being wrong, this is my translation: Sometimes it seems as if there is not enough love in the World and I also feel anxious.

Example 2:

Here's another example taken from here.

日本語：	いつもラーメンを少ししか食べずに帰ってしまうお客がいて、気になったラーメン屋が後をつけると……という話。
Jenglish:	[always] [ramen] [few] [not eat] [return + regret] [customer] [are], [worry] [ramen shop owner] [to tag along, to follow] [] [called] [story]

OK, I had to admit defeat in translating this one. The first part seemed reasonably straight-forward, but the second part completely threw me. I'm translating ラーメン屋 as 'ramen shop owner' as it makes more sense. 後をつける doesn't make much sense and the following と also seems odd. So, regrettably I admit defeat and can only come up with There are regrettably always customers that return and eat little ramen and worried ramen shop owners ????

Example 3:

Here's a hopefully simple example taken from here.

日本語：	少ししか登場しないのに妙に印象に残ってるキャラ。
Jenglish:	[few] [appearances (on screen)] [to do][despite][unusual] [impression] [remain] [characters (from anime)]

To be honest, I thought this one was pretty easy - hopefully I got it right. My translation is Characters that have left a lasting impression despite few appearances.

またね・・・