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Nati's List of Diminutives

Natiux
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Joined: February 25th, 2008 6:02 pm

Nati's List of Diminutives

Postby Natiux » July 29th, 2008 12:20 am

Hi Everyone.

I decided to open up a topic so we can talk about diminutives, to learn ways to form them and help people who have doubts about them.

For those of you who are beginners let me tell you that diminutives are suffixes that indicate small size, youth, affection or contempt, the best example I can give you in english is the -Y in Doggy.

The most common suffix is -ito/-ita, let's keep the doggy example which in spanish would be "Perrito"!

But is not as easy , we can find many other ways to form a diminutive, we can use cito/-cita ( Pobrecito/Pobrecita)

There is so much more but I don't want to give it all in one go, I think it's quite an important and interesting topic.. you will defenetly hear people using diminutives when talking all around the Spanish speaking world!

So let's talk about this .. do you have any doubts? do you use them a lot?

I say we make a big list of all the diminutives we can think of and how we can use them! :wink:

rodney
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Postby rodney » July 31st, 2008 10:54 pm

This is good timing. I've recently started making a list of the diminutives I've been hearing. The ones I have so far are listed below, many of which I've heard here:

Amorcito, alguito, poquito, chiquito, chiquitito, cariñito, bebito, osito, gordito, calientito, leísimo, buenisimo, cariñositos, griengito, hasta luegito, tempranito, cerquita, hasta prontito.

As I add more I'll try to have example sentences as well.

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Joseph
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Postby Joseph » July 31st, 2008 11:34 pm

This was a great idea, Natalia!!! :wink:

Here's one that I've always liked: "tiempísimo", as in "hace tiempísimo que no te veo" (It's been such a long time since I've seen you). Notice the difference between this case, where we're turning the noun into a superlative and "hace muchísimo tiempo que no te veo", in which case we're turning the adjective into the superlative. Pretty cool, huh? The meanings are the same, but there's more style in "tiempísimo" in my opinion.

Saludos,
Joseph

rodney
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Postby rodney » August 4th, 2008 4:30 pm

I think it would be great if Natie or someone could post random words for us to try and make into diminutives ourselves and then we can also try to write sample sentences using those diminutives. You guys could make corrections where necessary. This would be a great way for us to learn truly learn how they're used.

Thoughts??

Joseph
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Postby Joseph » August 4th, 2008 8:08 pm

Rodney,

Yet another great idea!!! :D

Here's a few to work on. I tried to pick words that haven't been covered in the lessons:

plaza
calle
pescado

sol

Alright, now I would suggest trying to use these in context. Form a sentence with them, and, if you feeling really daring, try to translate it to English.

Mucha suerte y aquí van muchos "saluditos",
Joseph

rodney
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Postby rodney » August 5th, 2008 1:34 am

OK, dejame ver...

plaza - Hay un plazito donde queda el mercado.
There's a little plaza where the market is located.

calle - Esta callita tiene mucho trafico.
This little street has a lot of traffic.

pescado - Es un pescadito, voy a necesitar más comida.
It's a small lpiece of fish, I'm going to need more food.

No sé usar los otras, té y sol.

mariposa
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Postby mariposa » August 5th, 2008 2:07 pm

Voy a tentar tambien:
- ¿No quiéres un tezito?

sol. Hoy hay un solito bonito.

Joseph
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Postby Joseph » September 24th, 2008 8:28 pm

Mariposa:

Got the sound right, but spelled with a "C":

¿te sirvo un tecito?... ¡qué rico es disfrutar el solcito por la tarde...!

Rodney:

plaza - Hay una plazita donde queda el mercado.
There's a little plaza where the market is located.

calle - Esta callecita tiene mucho trafico.
This little street has a lot of traffic.

As for this one, a couple of comments:

"pescado - Es un pescadito, voy a necesitar ms comida.
It's a small lpiece of fish, I'm going to need more food."

If you want to say that it's a small piece of fish, you might add some more emphasis "es un pescadito no más" (it's just a little fish) or you could even exaggerate and say "es una piraña" (it's a pirana, a very small fish). However, there's also the affection usage of "pescadito", like "no hay nada mejor que comer pesdadito en la playa" (there's nothing better than eating a bit of fish at the beach).

How about some more? Try to form the diminutives with the following words:

#1) mujer
#2) mamá
#3) papá
#4) hijo, -a
#5) niño, -a

¡Suerte!

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