Improve your vocabulary: Synonyms for "small" in English

Hi, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on small synonyms.

If you've watched my lesson on big synonyms, this lesson has a similar idea. We're going

to look at ways to make your vocabulary richer to make it stronger and to add variety. So

I will be looking at some other ways that you can say "small" so that you don't sound

like you're repeating the same adjectives, the same words again and again in your conversations

or in your writings. So let's begin.

First, we have a sentence. "He's, she's, that's" -- you can say, "It's so" -- obviously, you

could say "small" if you're talking about a building, a chair, a table, whatever it

is that you're talking about. You can also say, "That's so little." So "little" and "small"

are probably the two most common words that you likely know. And you might know the next

one as well, which is "tiny". So you can have a tiny problem or a tiny headache, or a tiny

issue with someone.

The next one might be new for some of you, and that word is "minuscule". Now, "minuscule"

-- think of the word "mini", which is here. And again, "mini" just means "small", just

means "little". If you wanted to make it a little more formal, you can say, "It's minuscule."

So if you have the difference between buying one car and another car, but one car is much

better, but the price difference is not very big, you can say, "The price difference is

minuscule. I should pay the extra money and get the much better car." Okay? So a difference

can be minuscule or small or little.

Next, we have the word "petite". This comes from the French word for "small", "petit"

or "petite". I apologize for my pronunciation. We also use this word in English. In English,

it means, like, "cute", so small that it's acute and adorable like this little thing.

What is this? Hey. There's a little Pikachu in my pocket. So as you can see, this Pikachu

is very petite, so cute, so small, so tiny that he's adorable. Okay, Pikachu. I'll see

you later. He's small, but he's very heavy. I hope he'll be okay.

Next, we have the word "puny". Now, "puny" has a negative meaning. It's so small that

it's weak, not strong. So a person can have puny muscles, for example. So again, "petite"

-- cute and adorable; "puny" -- so small that it's weak, not strong.

Next, we've the word "mini" which we discussed. And the final three words are not as commonly

used in writing, but we definitely use them in speech. So the word "wee". If you want

to, you know, have a big problem, and when you're talking about this problem to your

friend and you don't want to stress the size of the problem, and you want to say, "We have

a wee problem, a small problem." Even if the problem is big and you want to make it smaller

in the person's mind, you can say, "We have a wee problem, a teeny problem, a teensy problem."

So all three of these words, they use the sound "ee". And you can stretch it out when

you're saying it. "A wee problem, a teeny problem, a teensy problem."

And finally, we have one, two, three, four expressions where we're combining two different

adjectives and we're making them sound really cute and adorable and small and tiny. So first,

"itty-bitty". It sounds fun to say, right? So repeat after me, "itty-bitty". You can

say "an itty-bitty problem", "I have an itty-bitty headache." Very cute. Adorable, almost.

Next, we have the words "teensy". And if you want to emphasize it even more, "teensy-weensy"

okay? "Teensy-weensy." Same with the next one, "teeny-tiny." So all you're doing is

combining teeny and tiny. And finally, we have "itsy-bitsy". So there is a children's

nursery rhyme that goes "itsy-bitsy spider". And if you're lucky, maybe you'll get to hear

it at some point.

So one more time, from the top, listen and repeat. Practice the pronunciation.

"Little, tiny, minuscule, petite, puny, mini, wee, teeny, teensy, itty-bitty, teensy-weensy,

teeny-tiny, and itsy-bitsy." Okay.

So if you'd like to test your understanding of how to spell these words, how to use them

in context, as always, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. And don't forget to

subscribe to my YouTube channel. Bye.

"The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout. Down came the rain and

-- hey. What are you looking at? -- washed the spider out. Out came the..."