very few

[sh3000]

Hi..


What does it mean that
"suddenly Black's queen has very few squares to retreat to."?


Does it mean that the squares are not very insufficient ?


Thanks in advance

 

[Barb_D]

There are very few choices.

 

[mayita1usa]

What does it mean that
"suddenly Black's queen has very few squares to retreat to."?

Few is used with countable nouns to mean "not many".

The queen has few squares. = The queen does not have many squares.
​

It is parallel to the use of little with uncountable nouns to mean "not much".

We have little space to live in. = We do not have much space to live in.
​

Very emphasizes the small number (of squares).

 

[Tdol]

not very insufficient

Out of curiosity, what did you mean by this phrase?

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi. (one full stop is enough)

What does [strike]it mean that[/strike] "Suddenly Black's queen has very few squares to retreat to (no full stop here)" mean?

Does it mean that the squares are not very insufficient?

"Not very insufficient" would not be used in English. "Insufficient" means "not enough". If your phrase were grammatically correct, it would mean "not very not enough" which a) doesn't work and b) is a double negative. "Insufficient" is not an adjective that can be used with "very" etc.

There are insufficient squares.

Also note that we do not put a space before a question mark. See the other amendments to capitalisation and punctuation I made to your post.