css selectors nth-child - to target first (n) children

Question

I have been trying to target only the first four list items in the using css selector nth-child and/or nth-last-child

<ul>
    <li>Hello first item</li>
    <li>Hello item 2<li>
    <li>Hello item 3</li>
    <li>Hello   item 4</li>
    <li>Hello  item 5</li>
    <li>Hello   item 6</li>
    <li>Hello   item 7</li>
    <li>Hello  item 8</li>
    <li>Hello  item 9</li>
</ul>

my first try:

ul li:nth-child(1n):not(:nth-last-child(-n+5)){
    font-weight:bold;
}

Yet i wanted to simplify it

so my second one:

ul li:nth-child(-n+4){
    font-weight:bold;
}

Can you tell me if there is any better solution than second one / is this the right way to target first (n) children ?

Answer 1

Your code works if you fix the typo:

jsFiddle example

Although a better solution may be:

 ul li:nth-child(-n+4) {
     font-weight:bold;
 }

jsFiddle example