student asking question

How come "bit" was used after "a little" here? I think just using "a little" makes sense.

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

A "bit" is a small piece or amount of something. It is common to put "bit" after "little" to form the phrase, "a little bit". "A little bit" is a commonly-used idiom that means "somewhat", "to some extent", or "fairly". It would also be perfectly okay to drop "bit" in this sentence and just say "a little close". Both variations are common and have the same meaning. Here's some examples of "a little bit": Ex: I'm a little bit tired. Can we go out to dinner tomorrow instead? Ex: The girl is a little bit shy.

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