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Have you ever noticed that whenever you ask for something in a Spanish bar, restaurant or shop, the barman, waiter or shopkeeper invariably comes back at you with something a little different, as if they’re correcting you? Don’t be disheartened; they’re not. By adding a little something extra to the end of the word you’ve used, they’re just being friendly. They’re using the Spanish diminutive suffix, to give it its technical name.
Let’s look at some examples. In a bar, ask for una cerveza, una caña or un tubo and the barman, more often than not, will confirm your order with una cervecita, una cañita or un tubito. This doesn’t only apply to alcoholic drinks, of course; un zumo becomes un zumito, and un café un cafelillo or un cafelito.
When asked to wait a moment, a minute or a second, you will be told un momentito/un momentillo, un minutito or un segundito. The nicest examples of this diminutive suffix I’ve come across recently are muy cerquita de aquí (very very near here) and ahora mismito (right away). And surely the most sublime example of the use of this linguistic feature is in the double diminutive chiquitita, as immortalised in the Abba song of that name.
The grammar is that, in theory, you can add the suffix –ito, -ita, -itos, -itas or –illo, -illa, -illos, -illas to any Spanish noun, the effect being to make the thing smaller, more familiar, more affectionate. Sometimes it doesn’t really change the meaning much at all!
Some nouns with diminutive suffixes have become nouns in their own right, for example:
perro – dog; perrito – puppy; perrito caliente – hot dog
gato – cat; gatito – pussycat
pan – bread; panecillo – bread roll
cigarro – cigar; cigarrillo – cigarette
amor – love; amorcito – darling
paseo – walk; paseíto – little stroll
bocadillo – sandwich
fresquito – nice and fresh
There are, of course, suffixes which make things bigger, but that’s the subject of another article…
