Abstract: A method and apparatus to encode/decode a low bit-rate audio signal. The method of encoding a low bit-rate audio signal, includes quantizing and losslessly-encoding a specific frequency component of an audio signal in a frequency domain, generating codebooks using the audio signal in the frequency domain, detecting an envelope of a frequency component of the audio signal other than the specific frequency component in a specific band unit and quantizing and losslessly-encoding the detected envelope of the other frequency component, selecting a codebook that is most similar to the other frequency component of the audio signal to be encoded from among the generated codebooks and determining a codebook index (fine structure), losslessly-encoding the determined codebook index, and generating a bit stream using the specific frequency component, the envelope of the other frequency component, and the determined codebook index.