How to say “small” in 53 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 Hungarian, where kis is the 74th most used word.
- Afrikaans klein small, little #176
- Albanian vogël small, little #179
- Arabic صغير #294
- Armenian փոքրիկ tiny, small #206
- Basque txiki small, little #267
- Bengali ছোট #205
- Bosnian mali #285
- Bulgarian малък small, little #523
- Catalan mica a bit, a small piece #156
- Chinese 小家伙 kid, small boy, youngster #923
- Croatian mali #332
- Czech malý #584
- Danish lille small, little, slight #161
- Dutch kleine small, little #322
- English few An indefinite, but usually small, number of #332
- Esperanto malgranda #649
- Estonian väike #248
- Finnish pikku little, small #517
- French petit #185
- Galician pequeno little, short, small; smaller #372
- Georgian პატარა little, small #89
- German kleine small, little, wee #374
- Greek μικρό small, little #426
- Hebrew קטן Little, small, diminutive #286
- Hindi छोटे little, small #298
- Hungarian kis small, little #74
- Icelandic lítill short, small #670
- Indonesian kecil small in size #187
- Italian piccolo #439
- Korean 작은 #205
- Latvian mazais small, little size of other similar objects,… #497
- Lithuanian mažas little, small #403
- Macedonian мал little, small #372
- Malay kecil small, little #213
- Malayalam ചെറിയ small; tiny #100
- Norwegian liten small, little #297
- Persian کوچک #818
- Polish mały small, little #465
- Portuguese pequeno #512
- Romanian mic little, small #470
- Russian маленький little, small #841
- Serbian mali #302
- Slovak malý little, small #286
- Slovenian majhen #424
- Spanish chicos #260
- Swedish lite a little, to a small extent; somewhat #88
- Tagalog maliit small; little; insignificant #255
- Tamil சிறிய small, little, minor #96
- Telugu చిన్న small, little #90
- Turkish küçük small, little #123
- Ukrainian маленький little, small #569
- Urdu تھوڑا some, a little; small #192
- Vietnamese hạt a small hard piece; a seed, a grain, a nut,… #1,133
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.