DISMINUTIVO/ DIMINUTIVE

Diminutives are used to express smallness or affection.

English has a few common diminutives, such as kitty, doggy, sonny, also some proper names have diminutive forms, such as Bobby, Vicky, etc. In Spanish, most nouns and adjectives have diminutive forms, which is the equivalent to modifying a word with little. The most common diminutive suffixes are the following:

	SINGULAR	PLURAL
MASCULINE	-ito, -cito	-itos, -citos
FEMININE	-ita,-cita	-itas, -citas

The following diminutive suffixes are less commonly used:

	SINGULAR	PLURAL
MASCULINE	-illo	-illos
FEMININE	-illa	-illas

1. Generally, when words end in -a , -o or -te, the vowel is dropped and -ito(s) or -ita(s) is added. For the other words -cito(s), -cita(s) are used. However, these are NOT rules. They are only guides because there are many variations.

EXAMPLES

NOUN	DIMINUTIVE
dedo/ finger	dedito
cabeza/ head	cabecita
elefante/ elephant	elefantito
peine/ comb	peinecito
camión/ truck	camioncito
mujer/ woman	mujercita
sol/ sun	solcito
lunar/ mole	lunarcito
solo/ alone, lonely	solito

NOTE: When looking up a word in a dictionary, be aware of diminutives, which are NOT listed. Therefore, try to find the base word.

 

2. There are many words that end in -illa(s), -illo(s), -cilla(s), -cillo(s) that are NOT diminutives:

WORD	DIMINUTIVE
martillo/ hammer	martillito
ladrillo/ brick	ladrillito
pocillo/ demi-tasse (small cup)	pocillito
platillo/ saucer or dish (food preparation)	n/a
bocadillo/ finger food	bocadillito
bolsillo/ pocket	bolsillito
silla/ chair	sillita