Peu -- Adveb on Noun

Lesson 4.7 presents adverbs. Many adverbs have corresponding adjectives, one set is "petit" and "peu". The example given for these two is "J'ai pris une petite tranche de pain. J'ai mangé très peu." This example uses the transitive verb "manger," which requires a direct object, and that object appears to be "peu," True, "peu" can be an adverb, but it can also be a masculine noun. A similar sentence to the example given is "J'ai vu un peu." Returning to the lesson's example, I think it should have read, "J'ai mangé un peu." If we wanted to qualify how little we ate, instead of the adverb "très," we would have used an adjective such as "petit" and said, "J'ai mangé un petit peu." If there's something I'm not seeing in Lesson 4.7's example, please clarify. Sorry for the typing error. The title should be "Adverb or Noun."

Bonjour Diana, "J'ai mangé très peu", is perfectly fine and should be translated as "I ate very little". I understand your analysis of this sentence and technically it is quite correct. However, it would be best to equate "très peu" to the English "very little" where we commonly say "I ate very little" but we never say "I ate little" (equally, we never say "J'ai mangé peu") These structures work exactly the same in both languages. It is also worth remembering that French is a language of many rules and even more exceptions, and this instance is just one of those times when you have to memorize the structure as it is. I hope I have adequately explained this, reading it back now it seems a little convoluted yet this structure is confusing in the first place and am finding it hard to explain any clearer. Again I hope this helps, - Marie-Claire

Thank you. I'm a native English speaker and found my own language's structure very easy to learn. However, I've always been told that English is difficult to learn because of the exceptions to the rules. Now I'm beginning to think that French has even more exceptions than does English, and French appears to be even more difficult to learn. That said, I'm enjoying learning French.