18 Sep, 2009 in
Uncategorized by
Julio Foppoli
AUGMENTATIVES - AUMENTATIVOS
Note:
This structure is not frequent in Spanish. It appears every now and then. If you are a beginning to intermediate student, my suggestion is that you focus on more relevant everyday structures.
What are AUGMENTATIVES?
Augmentatives are suffixes (i.e. little particles that are attached� to root of a word).
By adding an augmentative, we can emphasize the idea we want to convey.
Common Spanish augmentatives:
|
-ón |
-azo |
-ote |
-acho |
|
-ona |
-aza |
-ota |
-acha |
RULES
A If the word ends in a vowel, we drop the vowel before adding the suffix:
|
grande big |
grandote very big |
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éxito success |
exitazo big success |
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patada |
patadón |
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kick |
strong kick |
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B When the word ends in a consonant, we� simply add the suffix.
|
animal |
animalote |
C -acho, -ucho, -ote, -achón, -arrón, -ejón have a negative connotation, they are augmentative but at the same time depreciative and pejorative:
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el pueblo the people |
el populacho the mob, rabble |
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el cuarto the room |
el cuartucho the ugly old room |
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la nube the cloud |
el nubarrón the big cloud |
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feo ugly |
feucho very ugly |
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rico rich |
ricachón very rich |
Published on 18 Sep, 2009 in
Uncategorized by
Julio Foppoli