Learn about diminutives in Italian
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are diminutives and how are they formed in Italian? |
| Ofelia: And are they commonly used? |
| Michael: At ItalianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Alessia Marino points out a cute kitten to her daughter Marta and says, |
| "Look at the kitten!" |
| Alessia Marino: Guarda il gattino! |
| Dialogue |
| Alessia Marino: Guarda il gattino! |
| Marta Marino: Carino! |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Alessia Marino: Guarda il gattino! |
| Michael: "Look at the kitten!" |
| Marta Marino: Carino! |
| Michael: "Cute!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In Italian, words can change shape in order to convey extra information about the size or the appearance of something, or the way the speaker feels. This phenomenon is called |
| Ofelia: alterazione, |
| Michael: which means "alteration" or "modification," and is achieved by adding certain suffixes to the words. There are different types of alteration, but, in this lesson, we'll focus on |
| Ofelia: diminutivi |
| Michael: "diminutives." which allow for describing something as smaller, and more often to show affection. The most common suffixes used for creating diminutives in Italian are: |
| Ofelia: -ino, -etto, -ello. |
| Michael: These change for feminine words into |
| Ofelia: -ina, -etta, -ella. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's see the diminutives from this lesson's conversation. Do you remember how Alessia Marino says "Look at the kitten!" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ofelia as Alessia Marino: Guarda il gattino! |
| Michael: Here, the diminutive is |
| Ofelia: gattino [SLOW] gattino, |
| Michael: which means "kitten" and comes from |
| Ofelia: gatto, |
| Michael: meaning "cat." The diminutive version of the noun here indicates smallness, but more probably cuteness. To form the diminutive, you drop the suffix |
| Ofelia: -o |
| Michael: and replace it with |
| Ofelia: -ino, as in gattino. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Marta Marino says "Cute!" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ofelia as Marta Marino: Carino! |
| Michael: Here, the diminutive is |
| Ofelia: carino [SLOW] carino, |
| Michael: which comes from |
| Ofelia: caro, |
| Michael: meaning "dear" or "lovable." The diminutive version indicates endearment and appreciation. Also, in this case, the suffix is |
| Ofelia: -ino, as in carino. |
| Michael: The feminine version would be |
| Ofelia: carina. |
| Michael: Now, let's see examples for the other suffixes. |
| Ofelia: orsetto [SLOW] orsetto. |
| Michael: This means "small bear" and comes from |
| Ofelia: orso, |
| Michael: meaning "bear." The diminutive suffix is |
| Ofelia: -etto, as in orsetto. |
| Michael: Let's hear an example sentence |
| Ofelia: Gli orsetti giocano vicino al fiume. |
| Michael: "The small bears play nearby the river." Here, the speaker wants to point out the bears' smallness and cuteness. Now, let's see another example with the other most common suffix |
| Ofelia: alberello [SLOW] alberello. |
| Michael: This means "small tree" and comes from |
| Ofelia: albero, |
| Michael: meaning "tree." The diminutive suffix is |
| Ofelia: -ello, as in alberello. |
| Michael: Let's hear an example sentence |
| Ofelia: Nel giardino ci sono solo due alberelli. |
| Michael: "In the garden there are only two small trees." Here, the speaker wants to point out the trees' smallness and their small amount. The two trees could also be tall trees, but the speaker probably wants to point out their small number and the fact that the garden looks bare. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that in Italian you can modify words in order to convey extra information and connotation about what you're talking about or the way you feel about it. Diminutives are modified words that describe something as smaller or cuter. In Italian, the three most common suffixes to form diminutives are: |
| Ofelia: -ino, -etto, -ello. |
| Michael: These change for feminine words into |
| Ofelia: -ina, -etta, -ella. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Verbs can also have a diminutive form, for example |
| Ofelia: canticchiare, |
| Michael: meaning "to sing softly" from the main verb |
| Ofelia: cantare, |
| Michael: meaning "to sing." Let's quickly mention that, for verbs, the diminutive suffix is added before the ending. In this case, the suffix is |
| Ofelia: -icchi-, as in cant-icchi-are. |
| Michael: Let's hear a sample sentence twice: once using the standard form of the verb, and once for its diminutive form. The first is |
| Ofelia: Anna canta una canzone. |
| Michael: "Anna sings a song." Now, with the diminutive, |
| Ofelia: Anna canticchia una canzone |
| Michael: "Anna sings a song softly." Here, Anna is still singing a song, but it's barely audible. She is probably humming. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Under the diminutives, we could also list the "terms of endearment" or |
| Ofelia: vezzeggiativi. |
| Michael: These words have different suffixes, such as |
| Ofelia: -uccio, -uzzo. |
| Michael: For example, let's hear how the word "cat" changes in this case. |
| Ofelia: Gatto becomes gattuccio. |
| Michael: This version of the word clearly conveys endearment, the speaker's feeling of affection toward the cat, which is not necessarily a small cat. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Ofelia: A presto! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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