few / less / to lack / to be missing / to stop (doing sth) / seldom
少
=
丿
+
小
:
Mnemonic symbol: 少 looks like a smiley face.
There's a food shortage (少) in the aorta, and Sherlock Holmes (sh) and Smiley (少) are looking for food in the living room (ao3). There's only one banana (丿) left. Soon they'll have to eat the many daisies (小) which are growing there.
to count / to count as / to regard as / to enumerate (sb's shortcomings)
数
=
娄
+
攵
:
Sheldon Shrimp (shu) occupied a lunar mansion (娄) inside of the space station (Ø3) although he knows that it is to be torn down. Outside of his lunar mansion the construction (or rather destruction) workers are already counting (数) down from ten. When they count (数) zero, they will start taking down the whole thing with their sledgehammers (攵).