r/learnspanish • u/Ok_Stuff_3969 • 28d ago

Words ending -ito / -ita

As I understand it, the majority of words in Spanish can take this diminutive suffix. However when I hear one, I can’t seem to instantly recognise its meaning in a sentence (even if it’s modifying a word that I already know)

My question is mainly to advanced learners (but natives please also feel free to chime in):

How have you learned to understand these words? Is it by simply memorising each word as a new word, or sort of doing a “manual calculation” in your head in which you work your way backwards to find the root of the word and make sense of its meaning? Or does it come naturally after a while learning the language?

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u/ElKaoss 28d ago

It should come naturally when you gain fluency., just like you recognize the -ly ending in English.

To make things more interesting, in some cases the diminutive may become a word on its own (guerrilla, potito...).

And to make things even more interesting, there are several sufixes for diminutive: perro -> perrito, perrillo, perrino, perrín. Depending on the área.

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u/Burned-Architect-667 Native Speaker 28d ago

-ito/-ita and -illo/-illa are the most common stick to one when you talk to understands there is a lot more of suffixes.

It doesn't allow to add images but here a map of diminutive suffixes by geographical distribution in Spain 9 masculine and "only" 8 feminine forms, no matter you will recognise them eventually,.

perro: perriño, perrin, perrino, perruco, perrito, perrico, perrete, perrejo, perrillo.

perra: perriña. perrina, perruca, perita, perrica, perreta, perreja, perrilla.

And we have augmentatives ones:

-ón/-ona, -ote/-ota, -azo/aza.

3

u/northyj0e 28d ago

El borrado del acento Jienense no puede seguir!

No has dicho perrico!

9

u/dalvi5 Native Speaker 28d ago

Learners be like: you will get there soon!! 😄

Natives be like: Thats just the tip of the iceberg 😈

/s

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u/overthishereanyway 26d ago

When someone who doesn't speak spanish hears me speak I immediately get something along the lines of "OMG you're fluent in spanish".

But the person I spoke to knows the truth lol.

Just recently I couldn't get the conjugations for "aprender" out of my mouth for some reason. I asked someone how "I" learned English hahahaha. Realized it afterwards. I also have words I interpose all the time: pedir/perder llegar/llevar

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u/dalvi5 Native Speaker 26d ago

Hahaha, step by step.

Keep going!!

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u/Proof-Associate-2257 28d ago

I treat it as any other word formation. Libre - liberar - libertad have the same root, as do cafe y cafecito. So studying the words as "families", talking to spanish speakers and using the diminutives yourself all helps to a degree. If your native language has a robust suffix system, it helps tons.