The non-obviousness of writing the particle “not” together or separately with adverbs can confuse any person. The rules of the Russian language studied at school are sometimes insufficiently worked out in practice, due to the rare use of constructions illustrating spelling in modern written speech. Therefore, one day there may be a desire to figure out once and for all what to use in each case - “not a lot” or “a little”.
Using the word "a little"
According to the explanatory dictionary of linguist Ushakov, the adverb "a little" is used in writing in three cases:
- As a circumstance in the meaning of "slightly", "slightly", "not much", answering the question "how?". Usage examples: “he coughs a little”, “she is a little tired.”
- As a circumstance that answers the question "how much?": "buy some potatoes", "drink some whiskey".
- As a predicate: "It's not much."
In all these cases, "a little" can be replaced by similar synonyms "a little" or "a little", without changing the meaning of the sentence as a whole.
The use of the adverb "a lot" with the particle "not"
To understand how to write "not much" or "a little", where the particle "not" forms the opposite meaning of the adverb "a lot".
There are quite a few cases of separate writing of the “not many” construction, and they are not so common:
- “Not much” is written separately with adverbs ending in “o” if the sentence implies or uses an opposition that can be reinforced by the union “a”: “not much, but just a little bit of sugar”, “food not much, but very little”, “time, fortunately, not much (but little) has passed.”
- If together with “not much” words reinforcing the negative meaning are used: “absolutely”, “not at all”, “at all”: “not much space at all”, “not much effort at all”. Also, the strengthening of the negative meaning can occur by using words with the particle “neither”: “not much at all”, “not at all much”.
- In interrogative sentences, “not much” is written separately if used together with the particles “whether” and “is it”: “do you take on a lot?”, “doesn’t she have a lot to do?”.
Small tricks - looking for substitute words
If the spelling of "a little" or "not much" still causes difficulties, then you can resort to the method of searching for synonyms or similar words with the same root, which are absolutely spelled together. one-piecethe spelling of the adverb "a little" in a sentence is determined by adequately replacing it with the word "a little".
| Examples | Replacement examples |
| He drank some water. | He drank some water. |
| She was a little cunning. | She was a little cunning. |
| We took a little walk. | We took a little walk. |
Such a replacement will help to avoid misspelling the word "a little" in an interrogative sentence with the word "is it": "Is it difficult to take a few extra things?", since this sentence can be written in the form: "Is it difficult to take a little extra things ?”
So, the particle "not" should be written with adverbs having the endings "o" and "e" together in all cases, if it is possible to replace the word with a synonym without "not" or an expression with a close semantic meaning.
Semantic spelling difficulties
There are situations in which putting meaning into a sentence determines the spelling "not much" or "a little".
Some phrases in which the spelling of the words in question depends on the intended meaning.
| Phrases with "not much" and "a little" | Fluent spelling (if the sentence has an affirmative meaning) | Separate spelling (if the sentence has a negative meaning) |
| He was good for (?) | Yes, he was of little use (a little). | No, he didn't do much (He didn't do much). |
| He reads (?) before going to bed. | Yes, he reads a little (a little) before bed. | No, he doesn't read much before bed. (He doesn't read much before bed.) |
| There was (?) water. | Indeed, there was some (little) water. | No, there wasn't much water. (There wasn't much water.) |
| It will take more (?) time | Yes, it will take a little (little) more time. | No, it won't take long. (It won't take long.) |
So, if the meaning expressed by the sentence is affirmative, then the adverb "a little" is written together. The negative meaning of the phrase requires separate writing "not much".
"Not a lot" or "a little" - how to use it correctly? The good news is that both spellings are correct, just used in different ways. In most situations, "a little" is written together, as it is easily replaced by a synonym for "a little". If a substitution cannot be made without loss of meaning, then "not much" is written separately for reasons detailed in the rules.
