how to pronounce less

/ˈlɛs/

audio example by a male speaker

audio example by a female speaker

the above transcription of less is a detailed (narrow) transcription according to the rules of the International Phonetic Association; you can find a description of each symbol by clicking the phoneme buttons in the secction below.

less is pronounced in one syllable

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1. example pitch curve for pronunciation of less

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video examples of less pronunciation

An example use of less in a speech by a native speaker of american english:

“… Neel met James Hunter less than a week …”

meanings of less

adverb:

Comparative degree of little.
To a smaller extent or degree.
Used for forming negative comparatives of adjectives, especially those that do not form the comparative by adding -er.

determinative:

A smaller amount of; not as much.
Fewer; a smaller number of.
Comparative form of little: more little; of inferior size, degree or extent; smaller, lesser.

preposition:

Minus; not including.

verb:

To make less; to lessen.

noun:

A smaller amount or quantity.

conjunction:

Unless.

less frequency in english - A1 level of CEFR

the word less occurs in english on average 311 times per one million words; this frequency warrants it to be in the study list for A1 level of language mastery according to CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference.

topics less can be related to

it is hard to perfectly classify words into specific topics since each word can have many context of its use, but our machine-learning models believe that less can be often used in the following areas:

1) communication, information, and media;