本文针对“答疑中心”的以下问题而写：

www.yygrammar.com/guestbook/Guest_Reply.asp?TopicID=1291(可点击查阅问题)

less和least可加在形容词或副词等之前表示“较不……”或“最不……”，可称为较低级 (Lower Degree) 或最低级 (Lowest Degree)——摘自张道真《英语语法大全》。

本文只归纳 less 的用法(least的用法与之相似，只是意思不同)。

一、用于形容词前

1. 用于单音节形容词前。如：

Summer clothes are invariably less kind to fuller figures. 体形较丰满的人穿夏装总是不那么好看。

I found it immensely rewarding working with the less able children. 为能力差的孩子工作我觉得是非常值得的。

The voice, less coarse now, stirred her as it had then. 现在那声音已不那么刺耳，它又如当年一样让她怦然心动。

2. 用于双(多)音节形容词前

Jack was careful but Peter was less careful. 杰克细心，但是彼得差一些。

It may be less useful than it appears at first. 它似乎不像初看上去那样有用。

The body may be less resistant if it is cold. 天冷时，身体的抵抗力会下降。

They have been demoted to less responsible jobs. 他们被降职去做不太重要的工作。

Women are sometimes seen to be less effective as managers. 女性有时被认为不善于管理。

They want less passive ways of filling their time. 他们想找些更为积极的方式来打发时间。

Their dinner parties had become considerably less formal. 他们的晚餐会已经远不如以前正式。

The teacher had no patience with the less intelligent pupils. 那位老师对不太聪明的学生没有耐性。

People are becoming less tolerant of smoking these days. 如今人们对吸烟较为难以容忍了。

To shorten the lecture, the professor left out the less important parts. 为了缩短讲座时间，教授省略了那些不太重要的部分。

二、用于副词前

1. 用于单音节副词前。如：

Does it annoy you if others do things less well than you would, or don’t seem to try hard enough? 如果别人不如你能干，或者似乎不够努力，你会很生气吗?

Critics will point to other grand schemes that have gone less well, such as Sheffield’s World Student Games disaster. 批评家将会指出其他一些并不成功的大项目，比如谢菲尔德世界大学生运动会这一败笔(www.yygrammar.com)。

2. 用于双(多)音节形容词前

The sobs came less frequently, then stopped altogether. 抽泣声越来越稀疏，然后完全停止了。

Will they farm the rest of their land less intensively? 他们会在其余土地上实施较轻程度的集约化耕种吗?

另外，less还可用于过去分词或介词短语等之前。如：

Housing finance is less developed in continental Europe. 住房金融业在欧洲大陆的发展程度较低。

If you close a couple of windows, the screen will be less cluttered. 关闭几个窗口，屏幕就不会那么杂乱了。

At first sight it looked less like a capital city than a mining camp. 乍看上去，它不像是首府，更像是矿工村