Learn Russian: У нас мало риса и много соуса.

Words of quantity like мало (little) and много (a lot) require the noun that follows them to be in the Genitive case. Since рис (rice) and соус (sauce) are masculine nouns ending in a consonant, we add -а to make them риса and соуса.

Does Russian use the singular form here because rice and sauce are uncountable?

Yes! Just like in English where we say "a lot of sauce" (singular) instead of "a lot of sauces", Russian uses the Genitive singular for uncountable mass nouns. If we were talking about countable objects, like apples or cats, we would use the Genitive plural after много and мало.

Why doesn't the sentence use a verb for "to have"?

Russian rarely uses a direct verb for "to have". Instead, it uses the phrase У нас, which literally translates to "By us" or "At us". To state that someone has something, you use У plus the person in the Genitive case.

Can I use мало to mean "few" as well as "little"?

Yes! Мало covers both "little" (for uncountable things like rice) and "few" (for countable things like chairs). The same goes for много, which means both "much" and "many". The noun's form (singular or plural) will tell you which one it is.