1. Diminutives! Sp.3 H c.12

2. 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’.

3. What are the endings? -ito -cito -ecito -illo -cillo -ecillo Remember: Diminutives change to match the gender and number of the word they modify!

4. 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)

5. 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)

6. Continued… 3. Words with one syllable that end in a consonant take -ecito or -ecillo: Pan=panecillo (roll) Flor=florecilla (little flower)

7. Spelling Changes Don’t forget the orthographic spelling changes! Chica=chiquita/chiquilla (little girl) Diego=Dieguito Amigo=amiguito

8. Expressing Ridicule -illo or –ecillo is sometimes used to express ridicule No me gustan las obras de ese pintorcillo. I don’t like the works of that (would be) painter. ¡Qué coquetilla! What a little flirt!