Short in Spanish: Bajo vs Pequeño vs Corto vs Escaso de

Simple words can sometimes have very different translations between languages, depending on the context. One such example is the English word short, whose Spanish translations are very different, depending on what we’re talking about.

Today we’ll learn exactly how to say short in Spanish, learning each of the Spanish equivalents and their contexts. We’ll see how to talk about people who are short in height, things that are short in length or duration, and about being short of something.

Short in height: Bajo

Bajo in Spanish is the adjective we use when we want to say someone is short in terms of height.

Following normal rules for adjectives, the word is bajo for men, baja for women, and for plurals we just add an -s at the end. It’s also very common to use diminutives when describing someone’s height, so someone who’s very short may be bajito.

• Mi hermano es muy bajo. – My brother is very short.

• Creo que esa chica es más baja que yo. – I think that girl is shorter than me.

• Los niños a esa edad son bajos. – Kids that age are short.

• Las chicas de ese grupo son bajas. – The girls in that group are short.

• No le digas a Luis que es bajito, no le gusta. – Don’t say to Luis that he’s short, he doesn’t like it.

• No me gusta ser tan bajita. Quiero ser alta. – I don’t like being so short. I want to be tall.

Small build: Pequeño

Pequeño is another adjective that’s often used to describe people who are small, but there’s an important difference between pequeño vs bajo.

Pequeño is more of a general term to refer to size or dimensions, with better translations as small or even tiny in English. Pequeño can certainly take someone’s short height into account, but it also points to body size to describe their small build. Bajo, on the other hand, is only used to describe height, not overall size.

Aside from referring strictly to size, pequeño is also commonly used to reference someone’s lower age. A good translation of pequeño in this sense is therefore young. Context is key to understanding whether it’s meant to mean young or small in stature.

This is another regular adjective in Spanish, so the feminine form is pequeña and the plural forms take an -s.

• Mi hermano es muy pequeño. – My brother is very small. – My brother is very young.

• Creo que esa chica es más pequeña que yo. – I think that girl is smaller than me. – I think that girl is younger than me.

Short in length: Corto

We use corto when referring to something’s short length in Spanish. Like in English, this can apply to both lengths of objects in a physical sense, or lengths of time for things like movies or journeys. In those temporal contexts, other suitable translations include brief or quick.

This is another regular adjective, so the four forms are corto, corta, cortos, and cortas.

• El cabello de Andrea es corto. – Andrea’s hair is short.

• Esa falda es muy corta, te dará frío. – That skirt is too short, you’ll get cold.

• Tus resúmenes son demasiado cortos, al profesor no le gustarán. – Your summaries are too short, the teacher won’t like them.

• Mis piernas son cortas, no puedo correr tan rápido. – My legs are short, I can’t run that fast.

• El viaje es muy corto, llegaremos en 30 minutos. – The trip is very short, we will arrive in 30 minutes.

• Esa película es corta, solo dura una hora. – That movie is short, it only lasts an hour.

• Los días en invierno son muy cortos. – The days in winter are very short.

• Las vacaciones son muy cortas, necesito más tiempo para descansar. – The holidays are too brief, I need more time to rest.

Short of: Corto de, Escaso de

Finally, how do we express that we’re short of something in Spanish? We have two common terms for this use, corto de and escaso de, either of which can be used to express a lack or insufficiency.

Gramatically, we usually introduce these words with the verb estar, which is the impermanent form of the verb to be, so the full phrase is either estar corto de… or estar escaso de…. Both words also use de in the same way that you use of in English, followed by whatever is in short supply. The adjective endings change to reflect the subject of the sentence, so a woman who lacks something would be escasa de algo and a mixed-gender group would be corsos de algo.

• El restaurante está corto de personal, por eso cierra más temprano. – The restaurant is short-staffed, so it closes earlier.

• Estamos escasos de material en el hospital. – We are short of material at the hospital.

Conclusion: Short in Spanish

Great job! Now let’s just make a short summary before we part ways.

Here’s a quick recap of how to say short in Spanish. Just remember to modify the endings to agree with the gender of whatever they refer to!

• Bajo: Short in height
• Pequeño: Small size overall; Young
• Corto: Short in length, for both distance or time
• Estar corto de [algo] or Estar escaso de [algo]: to be short of [something]