How to say “short” in 46 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.
- baja/ˈbaxa/ Spanish
- قصير/qa.sˤiːr/ Arabic
- կարճ/kɑɾt͡ʃ/ Armenian
“short” in Spanish: baja · Arabic: قصير · Turkish: kısa
It is commonest in Armenian, where կարճ is the 261st most used word.
Short in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans kort/kɔrt/ #382
- Albanian shkurtër/ʃkuɾtəɾ/ short, brief #921
- Arabic قصير/qa.sˤiːr/ #1,155
- Armenian կարճ/kɑɾt͡ʃ/ #261
- Basque motza/ˈmots̻a/ #1,265
- Bengali কাঠি/ka.ʈʰi/ a short stick #2,458
- Bosnian kratak/krǎtak/ #2,497
- Bulgarian се[sɛ] the accusative short form of the reflexive… #4
- Catalan curt[ˈkurt] #2,059
- Chinese 一刻/i⁵⁵⁻³⁵ kʰɤ⁵¹/ short time; moment #872
- Dutch kort/kɔrt/ #1,104
- English soon/sun/ Within a short time; quickly #353
- Esperanto mallonga/malˈlonɡa/ #1,281
- Estonian nad/ˈnɑd̥/ short form of nemad: they #28
- French manque/mɑ̃k/ to lack; to be lacking in; to be short of #698
- Galician pequeno/peˈkeno/ little, short, small; smaller #372
- Georgian მოკლედ[mo̞kʼle̞tʰ] briefly, in short #618
- German nachher/ˈnaːxˌheːɐ̯/ in a short while #1,826
- Hebrew שניות/ʃnijot/ A second: a short period of time,… #621
- Hungarian egyet[ˈɛɟːɛt] expressing a semelfactive sense, a short… #297
- Icelandic tala[ˈtʰaːla] a short address, a speech #78
- Indonesian video/viˈdeɔ/ a short film clip, with or without audio #904
- Italian insomma/inˈsom.ma/ in short, in sum, in a word, in conclusion #738
- Korean 잠깐[t͡ɕa̠mk͈a̠n] for a short time, for a moment, awhile,… #119
- Latvian trūkst/ˈtruːkst/ to lack, to be in short supply, to not be… #1,024
- Lithuanian trumpas/trʊmpɐs/ #1,660
- Macedonian се[sɛ] Short reflexive direct object pronoun #3
- Malay singkat/ˈsiŋkat/ short; brief #1,600
- Malayalam പുല്ല്/pulːɨ/ grass; short plants with long narrow leaves… #894
- Norwegian stå/ˈstoː/ stop up, stop short, break down #422
- Persian محض[mæɦz] short for به محض #543
- Polish napisy/naˈpi.sɘ/ short piece of text, inscription #1,607
- Portuguese breve/ˈbɾɛ.vi/ brief, short #740
- Romanian scurt/ˈskurt/ #1,134
- Russian уверен[ʊˈvʲerʲɪn] short masculine singular of уве́ренный #281
- Serbian kratak/krǎtak/ #2,472
- Slovak krátky/kraːtki/ #1,328
- Slovenian kratek/kràːtək/ short in size #833
- Spanish baja/ˈbaxa/ #952
- Swedish snart/snɑːʈ/ soon; within a short time #249
- Tamil குறுகிய/kʊrʊɡɪjɐ/ narrow, short #416
- Telugu రా/ˈraː/ short for రాయి; pertaining to a stone #607
- Turkish kısa/kɯˈsa/ #461
- Ukrainian потрібен[poˈtʲrʲiben] short form of потрі́бний #397
- Urdu مختصر/mʊx.t̪ə.səɾ/ brief, short #811
- Vietnamese ngay[ŋaj˧˧] short for ngay cạnh #138
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), Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), 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.