18 Sep, 2009 in
Uncategorized by
Julio Foppoli
DIMINUTIVES - DIMINUTIVOS
What are DIMINUTIVES?
Diminutives are suffixes (i.e. little particles that are attached to the root of a word).
By adding a diminutive suffix to a noun, adjective, adverb or even a name, we can convey ideas of smallness, affection, irony, ridicule, humor or pity.
Common Spanish diminutives:
|
-ito |
-cito |
-ecito |
-illo |
-cillo |
-ecillo |
RULES
The two main diminutives are -ito and -illo,
A In most cases, we just drop the final vowel and add -ito or -illo.
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Sara Sarah |
Sarita Little Sarah |
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hijo son |
hijito little son |
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pollo chicken |
pollito little chicken |
B One-syllable words that end in a consonant take -ecito or -ecillo:
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pan bread |
panecillo bread roll |
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pez fish |
pececillo little fish |
C Those words that have more than one syllable and end in E, N, R or a stress vowel add -cito or -cillo:
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pobre poor |
probrecito poor thing |
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mujer woman |
mujercita little woman |
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mamá mother |
mamacita cute little mommy |
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(sexual connotation, usually said as a complement to a beautiful lady)
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D -illo, -cillo, -ecillo, -uelo, -zuelo, -ezuelo express diminutiveness, lowness, scorn or ridicule.
Examples:
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mujer woman |
mujerzuela female prostitute |
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mujer woman |
mujercilla little woman |
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(negative connotation) |
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Published on 18 Sep, 2009 in
Uncategorized by
Julio Foppoli
Jessica Ojeda | March 1st, 2010 at 9:14 pm #
Thanks for the great explanation of dimunitives! It sure would be helpful for this type of information to be taught in Spanish class. But generally the most you get is “mamacita.”
Interestingly, this brings to my mind the extremely popular drink, the MARGARITA! I just did some quick online research and it seems that the drink may have been named after a woman named Margaret. Does that mean that in English we could order up a little Margaret!? (only joking)