what little remains

[Maybo]

‘Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. again expressed hope that it was close to an aid agreement and to establishing "safe zones" in southern Gaza, but what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies were dwindling fast.’

What’s the difference in meaning if ‘what’ is removed?

 

[Maybo]

Is “remains” a verb?

 

[Tarheel]

Is “remains” a verb?

In this case it means the same as "that's left", thus: "what little that's left of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies ...."

 

[Tarheel]

@Maybo If you remove "what" you will have to change the rest of the sentence and make "little" a verb.

 

[Maybo]

@Maybo If you remove "what" you will have to change the rest of the sentence and make "little" a verb.

Is ‘little’ a noun and ‘remains’ a verb in the original sentence?

 

[emsr2d2]

Is ‘little’ a noun and ‘remains’ a verb in the original sentence?

"Remains" is a verb. Have you checked a dictionary to see if "little" can be a noun?

 

[Holmes]

View attachment 5671

‘Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. again expressed hope that it was close to an aid agreement and to establishing "safe zones" in southern Gaza, but what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies were dwindling fast.’

What’s the difference in meaning if ‘what’ is removed?

"What little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies" is a clause, and it is functioning as the subject of the second independent clause, whose predicate is "were dwindling fast." If "what" is removed, and nothing else is changed, the second independent clause of the sentence will collapse into ungrammaticality:

*Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. again expressed hope that it was close to an aid agreement and to establishing "safe zones" in southern Gaza, but little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies were dwindling fast.

If you want to remove "what," you could change the clause "what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies" to a noun phrase introduced by "the" and modified by a relative clause: "the little that remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies." (Then you also would need to change "were" to "was.") There would be very little difference in meaning between the original sentence and the resulting one:

Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. again expressed hope that it was close to an aid agreement and to establishing "safe zones" in southern Gaza, but the little that remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies was dwindling fast.

 

[White Hat]

Take another look at that sentence ("Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. again expressed hope that it was close to an aid agreement and to establishing "safe zones" in southern Gaza, but what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies were dwindling fast.").

Wouldn't 'what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies is dwindling fast' be correct here?

Cross-posted

 

[Tarheel]

@White Hat That's my opinion.

 

[Maybo]

"Remains" is a verb. Have you checked a dictionary to see if "little" can be a noun?

Just checked. Only pronoun.

 

[Maybo]

Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. again expressed hope that it was close to an aid agreement and to establishing "safe zones" in southern Gaza, but the little that remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies was dwindling fast.

Why did you put 'the'?

What's the difference between 'little' and 'the little'?

 

[emsr2d2]

I have just checked. It's only a pronoun.

Note my corrections above. Remember to write in complete sentences at all times. Also, that's not right. It's not only a pronoun. Have another look.

 

[Holmes]

Take another look at that sentence ("Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. again expressed hope that it was close to an aid agreement and to establishing "safe zones" in southern Gaza, but what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies were dwindling fast.").

Wouldn't 'what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies is dwindling fast' be correct here?

Cross-posted

Hi, White Hat -- Like Tarheel, I agree that a singular verb is needed, whether it's "is" or "was." The prepositional phrase "of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies" is irrelevant for subject-verb agreement. It would be ungrammatical to say, "What little remains were dwindling fast."

 

[Holmes]

Why did you put 'the'?

What's the difference between 'little' and 'the little'?

Hi, Maybo -- Great question. "The" alters the meaning quite a bit here. "The little that remains was dwindling fast" claims that little remained and that it was dwindling fast. "Little that remains was dwindling fast" is equivalent in meaning to "Little of what remains was dwindling fast," which implies that most things were NOT dwindling fast. Thus, without "the," we have almost the opposite meaning!

 

[PaulMatthews]

View attachment 5671

‘Early Tuesday morning, the U.S. again expressed hope that it was close to an aid agreement and to establishing "safe zones" in southern Gaza, but what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies were dwindling fast.’

What’s the difference in meaning if ‘what’ is removed?

This is a fused relative construction.

The sequence “what little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies” is not a clause; it’s an NP (noun phrase) with “what” as determiner and “little” as head, functioning as subject of the sentence. The predicate is “were dwindling fast”.

The fusion involves “what little”. On the one hand, “what” is determiner and “little” is head of the NP functioning as subject of “were dwindling fast”. On the other hand, “what little” is subject of “remains” in the relative clause.

We understand that little remains of the enclave’s food, fuel and water supplies, and it is dwindling fast. Determinative “what” also implies a relative small number or amount. Here, it implies that only a small amount of the enclave’s food, fuel and water supplies remains.

Dropping the determiner “what” changes the meaning only slightly. However, it would result in ungrammaticality, though this can be resolved by recasting it as “little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies and this was dwindling fast”.

 

[White Hat]

Dropping the determiner “what” changes the meaning only slightly. However, it would result in ungrammaticality, though this can be resolved by recasting it as “little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies and this was dwindling fast”.

What would you say as to 'little remains of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies and this is dwindling fast' and 'little remained of the enclave's food, fuel and water supplies and this was dwindling fast' being more correct?

 

[Maybo]

I have a problem with 'little". Was something omitted from it 'but what little (stuff) ...'? Is it a pronoun or determiner?

 

[Tarheel]

@Maybo little - a small amount
what little remains - the small amount that was left

 

[Maybo]

@Maybo little - a small amount
what little remains - the small amount that was left

what little remains = what the small amount remains?

 

[White Hat]

what little remains = what the small amount remains?

= the small amount that remains