Spanish Nouns - Diminutives, Augmentatives and Suffixes

Diminutives, Augmentatives and Suffixes

A very productive set of suffixes can be added to existing nouns and adjectives to form new Spanish nouns. This usually just slightly modifies the meaning, but sometimes it creates something new entirely.

The most common subset of such suffixes are the diminutives, which convey the idea of smallness, delicateness, etc. (also for endearing terms). The most common diminutive in Spanish is -it-. It is added to the root of the noun, and in actual usage, it takes the proper agreement for gender and number.

• planta → plantita / plantota ("plant" → "little plant" / "big plant")
• vaso → vasito / vasote ("glass" → "little glass" / "big glass")
• niño → niñito / niñote ("small boy" → "little tiny boy" / "Big (little tiny) boy")

In other cases, this ending can be pejorative or belittling.

• señor → señorito ("Sir/Mister" → "little sir/mister" (mockingly) compare (señora → señorita ("Madame/Mrs." → "Miss/Ms."))

When the word does not end in a vowel, -it- becomes -cit- for diminutives if the word ends in something other than an unstressed "-o" or "-a". Agreement marks are added to it according to the gender and number:

• botón → botoncito / botonote
• Carmen → Carmencita
• mamá → mamita, mamacita
• madre → madrecita

This is slightly modified when the base word ends in z. Because z and soft c are the same sound in Spanish, an epenthetic e is inserted (notice the orthographic change): pez → pececito / pecezote. There is nothing fixed when the base ends in other consonants: azúcar → azuquítar or azuquita / azucota.

When words end in -s or -te, there are varied approaches.