Мал is short for малый, not маленький. Not that it matters though as the two words are very close synonyms if not equivalents Just don't argue here The short adjectives are usually formed buy chopping off the ending - Малый - мал; маленький - маленьк? Doesn't sound right


As for Эта женщина красива - I see your point but it was not what I meant, I meant like "adjective - noun" order, didn't express it correctly though. My bad. Or maybe there is something I don't know about this