How to say “small” in 53 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.
- chicos/ˈtʃikos/ Spanish
- صغير/sˤa.ɣiːr/ Arabic
- 작은[t͡ɕa̠ɡɯn] Korean
- μικρό/miˈkɾo/ Greek
- ছোট/t͡ʃʰoʈo/ Bengali
- சிறிய/tʃɪrɪjɐ/ Tamil
“small” in Spanish: chicos · French: petit · German: kleine · Italian: piccolo · Portuguese: pequeno · Korean: 작은 · Arabic: صغير · Turkish: küçük
It is commonest in Hungarian, where kis is the 74th most used word.
Small in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans klein/kləi̯n/ small, little #176
- Albanian vogël/ˈvɔɡəl/ small, little #179
- Arabic صغير/sˤa.ɣiːr/ #294
- Armenian փոքրիկ/pʰokʰˈɾik/ tiny, small #206
- Basque txiki/t͡ʃiki/ small, little #267
- Bengali ছোট/t͡ʃʰoʈo/ #205
- Bosnian mali/ˈmalɪ/ #285
- Bulgarian малък[ˈmaɫɐk] small, little #523
- Catalan mica[ˈmi.kə] a bit, a small piece #156
- Chinese 小家伙/ɕi̯ɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻²¹ t͡ɕi̯ä⁵⁵ xu̯ɔ²/ kid, small boy, youngster #923
- Croatian mali/ˈmalɪ/ #332
- Czech malý[ˈmaliː] #584
- Danish lille/lilə/ small, little, slight #161
- Dutch kleine/ˈklɛi̯nə/ small, little #322
- English few/fjuː/ An indefinite, but usually small, number of #332
- Esperanto malgranda/malˈɡranda/ #649
- Estonian väike/ˈvæi̯ke/ #248
- Finnish pikku/ˈpikːu/ little, small #517
- French petit/pə.ti/ #185
- Galician pequeno/peˈkeno/ little, short, small; smaller #372
- Georgian პატარა[pʼätʼäɾä] little, small #89
- German kleine/ˈklaɪ̯nə/ small, little, wee #374
- Greek μικρό/miˈkɾo/ small, little #426
- Hebrew קטן/kaˈtan/ Little, small, diminutive #286
- Hindi छोटे/t͡ʃʰoː.ʈeː/ little, small #298
- Hungarian kis[ˈkiʃ] small, little #74
- Icelandic lítill[ˈliːtɪtl̥] short, small #670
- Indonesian kecil/kəˈt͡ʃil/ small in size #187
- Italian piccolo/ˈpik.ko.lo/ #439
- Korean 작은[t͡ɕa̠ɡɯn] #205
- Latvian mazais/ˈmazais/ small, little size of other similar objects,… #497
- Lithuanian mažas[ˈmaːʒɐs] little, small #403
- Macedonian мал[maɫ] little, small #372
- Malay kecil/kəˈt͡ʃel/ small, little #213
- Malayalam ചെറിയ/t͡ʃerijɐ/ small; tiny #100
- Norwegian liten/²liːtən/ small, little #297
- Persian کوچک[kʰuː.t͡ʃʰǽkʰʲ] #818
- Polish mały/ˈma.wɘ/ small, little #465
- Portuguese pequeno/piˈkẽ.nu/ #512
- Romanian mic/mik/ little, small #470
- Russian маленький[ˈmalʲɪnʲkʲɪj] little, small #841
- Serbian mali/ˈmalɪ/ #302
- Slovak malý/maliː/ little, small #286
- Slovenian majhen/máːjxən/ #424
- Spanish chicos/ˈtʃikos/ #260
- Swedish lite/ˈliːtɛ/ a little, to a small extent; somewhat #88
- Tagalog maliit/maliˈʔit/ small; little; insignificant #255
- Tamil சிறிய/tʃɪrɪjɐ/ small, little, minor #96
- Telugu చిన్న/t͡ɕinːa/ small, little #90
- Turkish küçük/cyˈtʃyc/ small, little #123
- Ukrainian маленький[mɐˈɫɛnʲkei̯] little, small #569
- Urdu تھوڑا/t̪ʰoː.ɽɑː/ some, a little; small #192
- Vietnamese hạt[haːt̚˧˨ʔ] a small hard piece; a seed, a grain, a nut,… #1,133
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.