Diminutives!

Sp.3 Hc.12

What are diminutives?

Diminutives are suffixes that are added to nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and even names in order to express smallness in size, affection, humor, pity, irony, or ridicule.

With diminutives, you can say something is little without actually using the adjective ‘little’.

What are the endings?

-ito -cito -ecito

-illo -cillo -ecillo

Remember: Diminutives change to match the gender and number of the word they modify!

The Rules:

1. For most words, including those that end in any vowel other than E, drop the final vowel and add -ito or -illo:

Hermano=hermanito (little brother)Rosa=rosita (little rose)Perro=perrito (puppy)

Continued…2. Words with more than one syllable that

end in E, N, R, or a stressed vowel (In their masculine forms) take -cito or -cillo:

Pintor=pintorcito (third-rate painter)Mamá=mamacita (mommy)

Pobre=pobrecito (poor little thing)

Continued…

3. Words with one syllable that end in a consonant take -ecito or -ecillo:

Pan=panecillo (roll)Flor=florecilla (little flower)

Spelling Changes

Don’t forget the orthographic spelling changes!

Chica=chiquita/chiquilla (little girl)Diego=DieguitoAmigo=amiguito

Expressing Ridicule-illo or –ecillo is sometimes used to

express ridiculeNo me gustan las obras de ese pintorcillo.

I don’t like the works of that (would be) painter.¡Qué coquetilla!

What a little flirt!