How to say “little” in 52 different languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
- poco/ˈpoko/ Spanish
- немного[nʲɪˈmnoɡə] Russian
- قليلا/qa.liː.lan/ Arabic
- छोटे/t͡ʃʰoː.ʈeː/ Hindi
- λίγο/ˈli.ɣo/ Greek
- קצת/ˈkt͡sat/ Hebrew
“little” in Spanish: poco · French: peu · Italian: poco · Russian: немного · Arabic: قليلا · Hindi: छोटे · Greek: λίγο
It is commonest in Danish, where noget is the 40th most used word.
Little in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans bietjie/biki/ a little; a bit; fairly #113
- Albanian vogël/ˈvɔɡəl/ small, little #179
- Arabic قليلا/qa.liː.lan/ a little #248
- Armenian քիչ/kʰit͡ʃʰ/ #150
- Basque txiki/t͡ʃiki/ small, little #267
- Bengali একটু/ekʈu/ a bit, a little #81
- Bosnian malo/mâlo/ little, few, some #81
- Bulgarian малко[ˈmaɫko] few, little #84
- Catalan petit[pəˈtit] small, little #362
- Chinese 一些/i⁵⁵⁻⁵¹ ɕi̯ɛ⁵⁵/ slightly; a little; somewhat #46
- Croatian malo/mâlo/ little, few, some #84
- Czech trochu[ˈtroxu] a bit; a little #126
- Danish noget/nɔːəð/ a little, a bit, somewhat #40
- Dutch beetje/ˈbeːtjə/ a bit, a little bit, somewhat #260
- English close/ˈkloʊ̯z/ So as to leave or create little distance or… #424
- Esperanto iomete/ioˈmete/ slightly, a little #306
- Estonian veidi/ˈvei̯d̥i/ slightly, a little #398
- Finnish hieman/ˈhie̯mɑn/ a little, bit, tad, slightly #359
- French peu/pø/ little; not very much/many #115
- Galician pouco/ˈpowko/ a little of something; not enough #153
- Georgian პატარა[pʼätʼäɾä] little, small #89
- German kleine/ˈklaɪ̯nə/ small, little, wee #374
- Greek λίγο/ˈli.ɣo/ a little #112
- Hebrew קצת/ˈkt͡sat/ A little, a bit, a little bit #96
- Hindi छोटे/t͡ʃʰoː.ʈeː/ little, small #298
- Hungarian kis[ˈkiʃ] small, little #74
- Icelandic svolítið[ˈsvɔː.liːtɪð] a little, kind of #1,266
- Indonesian sedikit/səˈdi.kɪt̪̚/ a little #158
- Italian poco/ˈpɔ.ko/ little, not much #492
- Korean 좀[t͡ɕo̞m] contraction of 조금: a little, somewhat, quite,… #10
- Latvian nedaudz/ˈnedaudz/ a little #278
- Lithuanian mažas[ˈmaːʒɐs] little, small #403
- Macedonian малку[ˈmaɫku] a little, some #81
- Malay sedikit/sədikit/ a little, a few #195
- Malayalam ഇത്തിരി/it̪t̪iɾi/ little, few #372
- Norwegian litt/ˈlɪt/ a bit, a little #92
- Persian کم[kʰʲæm] few, little #148
- Polish mały/ˈma.wɘ/ small, little #465
- Portuguese pouco/ˈpo(w).ku/ little of something #170
- Romanian câteva/ˌkɨteˈva/ some, a little, a few #224
- Russian немного[nʲɪˈmnoɡə] a little, some #166
- Serbian malo/mâlo/ little, few, some #79
- Slovak malý/maliː/ little, small #286
- Spanish poco/ˈpoko/ little, not much #133
- Swedish lite/ˈliːtɛ/ a little, to a small extent; somewhat #88
- Tagalog medyo/ˈmedjo/ rather; somewhat; a little bit; kind of #214
- Tamil சிறிய/tʃɪrɪjɐ/ small, little, minor #96
- Telugu చిన్న/t͡ɕinːa/ small, little #90
- Turkish biraz/biˈɾaz/ a bit, a little #52
- Ukrainian трохи[ˈtrɔxe] a little #163
- Urdu تھوڑا/t̪ʰoː.ɽɑː/ some, a little; small #192
- Vietnamese bé[ʔɓɛ˧˦] you, little child #186
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Vietnamese (vais1000 (vi_VN), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.