Lidt vs Få, Meget vs Mange | Danish Grammar

English lets you say "a lot of water" and "a lot of cars" with the very same phrase, and "a little" and "few" feel like near-synonyms. Danish refuses to blur this. It forces you to decide, every time, whether the thing you're measuring is countable (you can put a number in front of it: three cars, five glasses) or a mass (you can't: water, coffee, time). The quantifier word changes accordingly. This is the single distinction behind all four words on this page.

The core distinction in one sentence

Use the mass quantifiers lidt (a little) and meget (much) for things you can't count; use the count quantifiers få (few) and mange (many) for things you can count as separate units.

The decision test

Ask: could I put a plain number in front of this noun?

"three cars," "five glasses," "ten people" → countable → få / mange.
"much water," "a little time" — you can't say "three waters," "five times" → mass → lidt / meget.

A second, even faster tell: is the noun plural? Count nouns appear in the plural (biler, glas, mennesker), so they take få/mange. Mass nouns stay singular (vand, kaffe, tid), so they take lidt/meget.

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Plural noun → få / mange. Singular uncountable noun → lidt / meget. The English "a lot of" / "a little" papers over this split — Danish won't let you.

The mass words: lidt and meget

Lidt = "a little, a bit of." Meget = "much, a lot of." Both attach to uncountable, singular nouns: liquids, substances, abstractions, time.

Vil du have lidt vand?

Would you like a little water?

Jeg drikker meget kaffe om morgenen.

I drink a lot of coffee in the morning.

Vi har desværre ikke meget tid.

Unfortunately we don't have much time.

Der er kun lidt mælk tilbage.

There's only a little milk left.

Meget also doubles as an intensifier "very" before adjectives (meget stor = "very big"), but that's a separate use; here we care about meget + mass noun = "a lot of."

The count words: få and mange

Få = "few." Mange = "many." Both attach to countable nouns, which show up in the plural.

Der holder mange biler på vejen.

There are many cars parked on the road.

Få mennesker forstår, hvor svært det er.

Few people understand how hard it is.

Hun har mange venner i Aarhus.

She has many friends in Aarhus.

Der var kun få gæster til festen.

There were only a few guests at the party.

The minimal contrast: same idea, different unit

Watch how the quantifier flips the moment you switch from the substance to its containers. This pair is the heart of the page:

Jeg vil gerne have lidt vand.

I'd like a little water. (water = mass → lidt)

Jeg fik kun få glas til hele bordet.

I only got a few glasses for the whole table. (glasses = count → få)

And on the "a lot" side:

Der er meget kaffe i kanden.

There's a lot of coffee in the pot. (coffee = mass → meget)

Der står mange kopper i skabet.

There are many cups in the cupboard. (cups = count → mange)

Same drink, opposite quantifier — because kaffe (the liquid) is a mass but kopper (the cups) are countable.

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Pair them by shape: the two mass words both end in a soft single syllable, lidt / meget, and pin to a singular noun; the two count words, få / mange, pin to a plural. Lock the four into two columns once and you'll never cross them.

Edge cases and gray areas

A few nouns can be measured both ways, exactly as in English. Øl (beer) is a mass when you mean the liquid, but countable when you mean servings: lidt øl (a bit of beer) vs få øl (few beers). The rule still applies cleanly — you just decide which reading you mean.

Der er lidt øl tilbage i fadet.

There's a little beer left in the keg. (the liquid → lidt)

Vi nåede kun få øl, før baren lukkede.

We only managed a few beers before the bar closed. (servings → få)

Time is normally a mass (lidt tid, meget tid), but when you count occasions it becomes gange (times): mange gange (many times), få gange (few times). Again the noun, not the concept, decides.

A useful neighbour — et par and nogle. When "a few / a couple" feels right, Danish often uses et par ("a couple/a few," literally "a pair," but loosened to mean two or three) or nogle ("some," for countables). These sit alongside få but aren't interchangeable with the mass words.

Kan jeg låne et par kroner?

Can I borrow a couple of kroner?

Der er nogle æbler i skålen.

There are some apples in the bowl. (some + countable plural)

For the mass side, the parallel to nogle is noget ("some" for uncountables): noget vand (some water), noget brød (some bread).

Common Mistakes

The root error is always the same: English "a lot of" and "a little" don't reveal the count/mass split, so learners pick whichever Danish word they learned first.

Meget with a countable plural

❌ Der er meget biler på vejen.

Wrong — cars are countable, so use mange.

✅ Der er mange biler på vejen.

There are a lot of cars on the road.

Mange with a mass noun

❌ Jeg drikker mange vand hver dag.

Wrong — water is a mass, so use meget.

✅ Jeg drikker meget vand hver dag.

I drink a lot of water every day.

Lidt with a countable plural

❌ Der var lidt gæster til festen.

Wrong — guests are countable, so use få.

✅ Der var få gæster til festen.

There were few guests at the party.

Få with a mass noun

❌ Vi har få tid tilbage.

Wrong — time is a mass here, so use lidt.

✅ Vi har lidt tid tilbage.

We have a little time left.

Meget mistaken for the count word in "a lot of people"

❌ Meget mennesker stod og ventede.

Wrong — people are countable → mange.

✅ Mange mennesker stod og ventede.

A lot of people were standing waiting.

Decision table

Quantity	Mass (uncountable, singular)	Count (countable, plural)
a small amount	lidt (a little) lidt vand	få (few) få glas
a large amount	meget (much) meget kaffe	mange (many) mange kopper
some / a couple	noget (some) noget brød	nogle / et par nogle æbler

One line to remember: if you can count them, use få / mange; if you can only measure them, use lidt / meget. When unsure, try putting a number in front — if "three of them" sounds fine, it's a count noun.

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