Learn about augmentatives in Italian
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are augmentatives 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: Isabella Russo is an elementary school student and has a test soon. Her mom asks her, |
| "Do you have a lot of homework?" |
| Emily Erba: Hai tanti compiti? |
| Dialogue |
| Emily Erba: Hai tanti compiti? |
| Isabella Russo: Sì, devo leggere questo librone! |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Emily Erba: Hai tanti compiti? |
| Michael: "Do you have a lot of homework?" |
| Isabella Russo: Sì, devo leggere questo librone! |
| Michael: "Yes, I have to read this big book!" |
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: accrescitivi, |
| Michael: "augmentatives" which allow for describing something as bigger, or overwhelming. The most common suffix used for creating augmentives in Italian is: |
| Ofelia: -one |
| Michael: For feminine words, this changes into |
| Ofelia: -ona |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let's see the augmentative word from the lesson's conversation. Do you remember how Isabella says "Yes, I have to read this big book!" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Ofelia as Isabella Russo: Sì, devo leggere questo librone! |
| Michael: Here, the augmentative is |
| Ofelia: librone [SLOW] librone, |
| Michael: which means "big book" and comes from |
| Ofelia: libro, |
| Michael: meaning "book." The augmentative version of the noun here indicates a big size, but it is more likely that Isabella uses it to express the feeling of being overwhelmed by the great quantity of homework. To form the augmentative form of a noun, you drop the suffix, in this case |
| Ofelia: -o |
| Michael: and replace it with |
| Ofelia: -one, as in librone. |
| Michael: Let's see another example: |
| Ofelia: ragazzone [SLOW] ragazzone. |
| Michael: This means "big boy" and comes from |
| Ofelia: ragazzo, |
| Michael: meaning "boy." The augmentative suffix is |
| Ofelia: -one, as in ragazzone. |
| Michael: Let's hear an example |
| Ofelia: Mio nipote è diventato un ragazzone. |
| Michael: "My nephew has become a big boy." Here, the speaker wants to point out that the nephew has grown a lot. Depending on the context, it could also convey the impression of a boy that behaves like an adult, even if he's still young. |
| Michael: Now let's see a feminine example. |
| Ofelia: casona [SLOW] casona. |
| Michael: This means "big house" and comes from |
| Ofelia: casa, |
| Michael: meaning "house." The augmentative suffix is |
| Ofelia: -ona, as in casona. |
| Michael: The interesting fact about feminine nouns is that they often change into the masculine form when modified into augmentatives. For example, |
| Ofelia: testone [SLOW] testone. |
| Michael: This means "big head" and comes from |
| Ofelia: testa, |
| Michael: meaning "head," which is feminine. However, as you might have noticed, the augmentative suffix is |
| Ofelia: -one, as in testone, |
| Michael: which is masculine. Let's hear two more similar examples: |
| Ofelia: pentolone, |
| Michael: which means "big pot" and comes from the feminine noun |
| Ofelia: pentola. |
| Michael: The next example is |
| Ofelia: barcone, |
| Michael: which means "big ship" and comes from the feminine noun |
| Ofelia: barca. |
| [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. Augmentatives are modified words that describe something as bigger or overwhelming. In Italian, there is one main suffix to form augmentatives: |
| Ofelia: -one |
| Michael: The feminine version of the suffix is |
| Ofelia: -ona. |
| Michael: However, many feminine nouns become masculine in their augmentative form. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Under the augmentatives, we could also list the "pejoratives" or |
| Ofelia: peggiorativi. |
| Michael: These words have different suffixes, such as |
| Ofelia: -accio, -astro. |
| Michael: For example, let's hear how the word "book" changes in this case. |
| Ofelia: Libro becomes libraccio. |
| Michael: This version of the word clearly conveys disapproval, the speaker's feeling of being upset by the book, which is not necessarily a torn and dirty book. |
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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