chotto and sukoshi

What is the difference between chotto and sukoshi?

Sorry, I wish this was my answer, but here's someone from answers.yahoo.com that provided one four years ago: In times when they can be used interchangeably, chotto is more colloquial than sukoshi. Sukoshi can act as a noun or an adverb meaning a bit while chotto can't and can only be an adverb meaning a bit. Like you can say sukoshi wa kibun ga yoku narimashita ka? to mean "Are you feeling a little better?" but you can't say chotto wa. Chotto has to be used as an adverb. But it can still be used in a similar fashion to mean the same as the above sentence. Like "Kibun ga chotto yoku narimashita ka?" But in English they would be translated as the same sentence because that sort of nuance doesn't really exist. Chotto has more uses than sukoshi. Sukoshi is only able to talk about a "bit" of something, but chotto has a lot more uses. Like you can say chotto dekimasen. Even though it looks like "I can't do a bit" it's more like "it's not easy for me to do". Chotto is also an interjection so it can b used as "hey!" or "hold on!" but you can't replace chotto with "sukoshi" and be understood. As for your question, since both sukoshi and chotto are adverbs they can both be used, but I think chotto is more common when using them it as an adverb. It's sort of like asking the difference between "I understand Japanese a little" and "I understand a little Japanese." When it all comes down to it, you're not understanding everything.

Thanks, Fred. That clears up a lot!

No problem.