Learn about diminutives in Spanish
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are diminutives and how are they used in Spanish? |
| Michael: At SpanishPod101.com, we hear this question often. Imagine the following situation: Alejandra Flores Estrada is taking a walk with her daughter, Sofia Soto Flores. Alejandra sees a cute kitten and points it out to her daughter. She says, |
| "Look at the kitten!" |
| Alejandra Flores Estrada: ¡Mira al gatito! |
| Dialogue |
| Alejandra Flores Estrada: ¡Mira al gatito! |
| Sofia Soto Flores: ¡Qué lindo! |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Alejandra Flores Estrada: ¡Mira al gatito! |
| Michael: "Look at the kitten!" |
| Sofia Soto Flores: ¡Qué lindo! |
| Michael: "How cute!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In Spanish, when we want to emphasize that something or someone is small, it's very common to use a suffix, or |
| Cesar: sufijo, |
| Michael: to form what's called a diminutive, or |
| Cesar: diminutivo. |
| Michael: As we will see shortly, there are a few different diminutive suffixes, all of which mean "little." To start, in our example dialogue, we saw |
| Cesar: gatito, |
| Michael: which means "kitten." Here we can see that while English has a separate word for a young cat, Spanish simply takes the word for "cat," |
| Cesar: gato, |
| Michael: and adds a diminutive suffix, |
| Cesar: -ito. |
| Michael: Thus, the word for "kitten" in Spanish is a diminutive which literally means "little cat": |
| Cesar: gatito. |
| Michael: This example demonstrates a common diminutive suffix in Spanish, but another such |
| common suffix is |
| Cesar: -illo |
| Michael: and a few less common ones are |
| Cesar: -ico, -ete, -ín. |
| Michael: In addition to what we saw with "cat" and "kitten," there are a few other cases where using a diminutive form of words can slightly change the meaning. For example, the Spanish |
| word for "spoon" is |
| Cesar: cuchara. |
| Michael: A smaller spoon, or a "teaspoon," as it is called in English, would, in Spanish, simply be called a |
| Cesar: cucharilla. |
| Michael: In this case, although a different suffix is used, the end result is the same as it was for "cat" and "kitten": The literal meaning of "teaspoon" in Spanish is "little spoon." |
| Before moving on, it may be interesting to note another difference between English and Spanish: Spanish uses a different set of words for "tablespoon" and "teaspoon" when they are used as units of measurement in a recipe, such as in "add a tablespoon" or "add a teaspoon." In Spanish, the amount held by a tablespoon, would be called a "spoonful" or |
| Cesar: cucharada. |
| Michael: Likewise, the amount used to fill a teaspoon in Spanish would be called a "little spoonful," or |
| Cesar: cucharadita. |
| Michael: As before, both of these words were formed by simply adding a diminutive suffix to the end of the word for "spoon." |
| However, while the prior examples demonstrate that using diminutive forms may result in words with new meanings, note that these are just exceptions. Usually, diminutives are simply used to indicate that an object is small, to convey affection, or even just as a personal style of speaking. For instance, in Spanish, a jacket, or |
| Cesar: chaqueta, |
| Michael: can be referred to as a |
| Cesar: chaquetita |
| Michael: if it's actually small, or if one just feels like calling it small, even if it isn't. |
| Michael: As we have seen, diminutive suffixes can be added to nouns, but they can also be added to some adjectives, even if the resulting diminutive would not make much sense in English. Take, for example, the adjective "small," or |
| Cesar: pequeño. |
| Michael: Although the adjective already means small, we can, in fact, add a diminutive suffix to this word to further emphasize how small something is: |
| Cesar: pequeñito. |
| Michael: Whenever we have a noun and an adjective together, and we're referring to something small, we can add a diminutive suffix to either of the two words, or even to both of them. For example, if we wanted to talk about a tiny little house, we could say |
| Cesar: casita pequeñita. |
| Michael: You may have already noticed from the examples in this lesson, but just like regular Spanish adjectives, diminutives are also gendered and can be either masculine or feminine. Thus, while a small house, which is a feminine word, can be called |
| Cesar: pequeñita, |
| Michael: a small car, which is a masculine word, can be called |
| Cesar: pequeñito. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the sample conversation: Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud, and then listen carefully as Cesar models the correct answer. Repeat after him , with the focus on your pronunciation. Are you ready? |
| How do you say, "Look at the kitten!" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: ¡Mira al gatito! |
| Michael: Did you get it right? Listen again and repeat. Remember to focus on your pronunciation. |
| Cesar: ¡Mira al gatito! |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: ¡Mira al gatito! |
| Michael: Let's move on to the second sentence. How do you say, "How cute!" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: ¡Qué lindo! |
| Michael: Did you get it right this time? Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar: ¡Qué lindo! |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar: ¡Qué lindo! |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: It is worth mentioning that diminutives can also be formed with people's names. For example, if you meet a Spanish boy named |
| Cesar: Juan, |
| Michael: there's a chance that his family and friends may call him |
| Cesar: Juanito. |
| Michael: Similarly, a girl named |
| Cesar: Ana |
| Michael: might be known to some as |
| Cesar: Anita. |
| Michael: Occasionally, this diminutive may stay as a nickname throughout a person's entire life. Note that while this may be more likely for people of particularly short stature, it is not always the case. Referring to people with diminutives in Spanish is usually just an affectionate way to refer to those people. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Cesar: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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