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Suppose you see a mother with a laughing little 2-year-old. In English, we might exclaim, "how cute!"

I've had trouble saying this in Spanish. The word "cute" means something like "beautiful", but it has a sense of smallness and playfulness and affection. (It can be used for an adult; I might call my wife "cute" if she's doing something silly, but in serious moments I would say something more like "beautiful".)

I've asked a couple of Spanish speakers for a Spanish equivalent for "cute", and I've looked online, but I'm not sure if any of these fit:

• lindo or guapo - These could both describe an attractive adult, right?
• precioso - This seems close; we might say "precious" in English about a small child.
• ¡qué mono rico es! - This is just confusing. "What a delicious monkey"?

How would you say that a child is "cute" in Spanish?

##Update

It's hard to pick a right answer for this since this depends on your region (perhaps that means my question was too vague), so I picked the most upvoted answer and upvoted the others that were helpful to me.

Suppose you see a mother with a laughing little 2-year-old. In English, we might exclaim, "how cute!"

I've had trouble saying this in Spanish. The word "cute" means something like "beautiful", but it has a sense of smallness and playfulness and affection. (It can be used for an adult; I might call my wife "cute" if she's doing something silly, but in serious moments I would say something more like "beautiful".)

I've asked a couple of Spanish speakers for a Spanish equivalent for "cute", and I've looked online, but I'm not sure if any of these fit:

• lindo or guapo - These could both describe an attractive adult, right?
• precioso - This seems close; we might say "precious" in English about a small child.
• ¡qué mono rico es! - This is just confusing. "What a delicious monkey"?

How would you say that a child is "cute" in Spanish?

Suppose you see a mother with a laughing little 2-year-old. In English, we might exclaim, "how cute!"

I've had trouble saying this in Spanish. The word "cute" means something like "beautiful", but it has a sense of smallness and playfulness and affection. (It can be used for an adult; I might call my wife "cute" if she's doing something silly, but in serious moments I would say something more like "beautiful".)

I've asked a couple of Spanish speakers for a Spanish equivalent for "cute", and I've looked online, but I'm not sure if any of these fit:

• lindo or guapo - These could both describe an attractive adult, right?
• precioso - This seems close; we might say "precious" in English about a small child.
• ¡qué mono rico es! - This is just confusing. "What a delicious monkey"?

How would you say that a child is "cute" in Spanish?

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##Update

It's hard to pick a right answer for this since this depends on your region (perhaps that means my question was too vague), so I picked the most upvoted answer and upvoted the others that were helpful to me.

Suppose you see a mother with a laughing little 2-year-old. In English, we might exclaim, "how cute!"

I've had trouble saying this in Spanish. The word "cute" means something like "beautiful", but it has a sense of smallness and playfulness and affection. (It can be used for an adult; I might call my wife "cute" if she's doing something silly, but in serious moments I would say something more like "beautiful".)

I've asked a couple of Spanish speakers for a Spanish equivalent for "cute", and I've looked online, but I'm not sure if any of these fit:

• lindo or guapo - These could both describe an attractive adult, right?
• precioso - This seems close; we might say "precious" in English about a small child.
• ¡qué mono rico es! - This is just confusing. "What a delicious monkey"?

How would you say that a child is "cute" in Spanish?

##Update

It's hard to pick a right answer for this since this depends on your region (perhaps that means my question was too vague), so I picked the most upvoted answer and upvoted the others that were helpful to me.