ít ỏi

Level ≈B2 (approx.) adjective Top 5,000 most common

Hanoi [ʔit̚˧˦ ʔɔj˧˩]Huế [ʔit̚˦˧˥ ʔɔj˧˨]Saigon [ʔɨt̚˦˥ ʔɔj˨˩˦] browser voice

Syllables · tones

ítrisingsắc ỏidippinghỏi

Each syllable carries one of six tones; the mark on the vowel tells you which. How the six tones sound →

ít ỏi means few; little.

Meanings of ít ỏi in English

Adjective

few; little

Example sentences with ít ỏi

Tôi đang xoay sở để giành tiền với đồng lương ít ỏi. I'm managing scraping along on a small salary.
Việc sống bằng số tiền lương hưu ít ỏi đối với ông ấy là một việc khó khăn. It was hard for him to live on his small pension.

Bilingual example sentences from Tatoeba (tatoeba.org, CC BY 2.0 FR).

Etymology

-oi reduplication (C tone) of ít.

Frequently asked questions

What does ít ỏi mean in English?

ít ỏi (adjective) means "few; little".

How do you pronounce ít ỏi?

IPA: Hanoi [ʔit̚˧˦ ʔɔj˧˩]; Saigon [ʔɨt̚˦˥ ʔɔj˨˩˦]. Tones: ít — rising tone (sắc), ỏi — dipping tone (hỏi).

Meanings, pronunciation and etymology from English Wiktionary (wiktionary.org, via kaikki.org; CC BY-SA 4.0), reviewed and edited; example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). IPA shown for three accents: Hanoi (Northern), Huế (Central) and Saigon (Southern). The Listen button uses your browser's Vietnamese voice, for reference only. Levels are approximate, estimated from word frequency. Spotted a mistake? Let NgonNgu know.