[General] Chinese college text book: do little leisure activities

[LiuJing]

Text:
Generally speaking, most Chinese people spend most of their time working and do little leisure activities.

It sounds ok to me, but doesn't the English grammar say a countable noun can't be modified by ' little'? However, if this 'little' means 'small', it should be alright. So, what do you think of this 'little'?

Thank you.

 

[Barb_D]

I would use "few."

They have few leisure activities.

 

[BobK]

:up:

Text:
Generally speaking, most Chinese people spend most of their time working and do little leisure activities.

It sounds ok to me:cross:, but doesn't the English grammar say a countable noun can't be modified by ' little'? However, if this 'little' means 'small', it should be alright. So, what do you think of this 'little'?

Thank you.

It sounds odd to my ear. If you want to use the sort of 'little' that means 'a small amount', you could say they 'do little in the way of leisure activities'.

b

 

[Raymott]

Text:
Generally speaking, most Chinese people spend most of their time working and do little leisure activities.

It sounds ok to me, but doesn't the English grammar say a countable noun can't be modified by ' little'? However, if this 'little' means 'small', it should be alright. So, what do you think of this 'little'?

Thank you.

You sentence is wrong, as the others have explained.
But you can use "little" and other qualifiers with the uncountable equivalent.

"They do few activities. They do little activity."
"He does few exercises. He does little exercise."

With negatives:
"They don't do many activities. They don't do much activity."
"He doesn't do many exercises. He doesn't do much exercise."