How to say “short” in 46 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.
It is commonest in Macedonian, where се is the 3rd most used word.
- Afrikaans kort #382
- Albanian shkurtër short, brief #921
- Arabic قصير #1,155
- Armenian կարճ #261
- Basque motza #1,265
- Bengali কাঠি a short stick #2,458
- Bosnian kratak #2,497
- Bulgarian се the accusative short form of the reflexive… #4
- Catalan curt #2,059
- Chinese 一刻 short time; moment #872
- Dutch kort #1,104
- English soon Within a short time; quickly #353
- Esperanto mallonga #1,281
- Estonian nad short form of nemad: they #28
- French manque to lack; to be lacking in; to be short of #698
- Galician pequeno little, short, small; smaller #372
- Georgian მოკლედ briefly, in short #618
- German nachher in a short while #1,826
- Hebrew שניות A second: a short period of time,… #621
- Hungarian egyet expressing a semelfactive sense, a short… #297
- Icelandic tala a short address, a speech #78
- Indonesian video a short film clip, with or without audio #904
- Italian insomma in short, in sum, in a word, in conclusion #738
- Korean 잠깐 for a short time, for a moment, awhile,… #119
- Latvian trūkst to lack, to be in short supply, to not be… #1,024
- Lithuanian trumpas #1,660
- Macedonian се Short reflexive direct object pronoun #3
- Malay singkat short; brief #1,600
- Malayalam പുല്ല് grass; short plants with long narrow leaves… #894
- Norwegian stå stop up, stop short, break down #422
- Persian محض short for به محض #543
- Polish napisy short piece of text, inscription #1,607
- Portuguese breve brief, short #740
- Romanian scurt #1,134
- Russian уверен short masculine singular of уве́ренный #281
- Serbian kratak #2,472
- Slovak krátky #1,328
- Slovenian kratek short in size #833
- Spanish baja #952
- Swedish snart soon; within a short time #249
- Tamil குறுகிய narrow, short #416
- Telugu రా short for రాయి; pertaining to a stone #607
- Turkish kısa #461
- Ukrainian потрібен short form of потрі́бний #397
- Urdu مختصر brief, short #811
- Vietnamese ngay short for ngay cạnh #138
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.