Spanish Augmentative and Diminutive Terminations  

Grammar Basic Spanish ConceptsAugmentative Terminations
Overview

Suffixes called augmentatives are added to words to indicate augmentation. One example in English is:

ball --> balloon

The Spanish suffixes on (masculine), and ona (feminine) denote augmentation:

libro - book ---> librón - large book
hombre - man ---> hombrón - big, strong man
grande - big ---> grandón - really, really big

Note: Feminine nouns generally take the suffix on and become masculine:
una mujer - woman ---> un mujerón: a big, strong woman

Many people are not aware of this rule, so you will often hear sentences like the one below:
La enfermera es una mujerona.
The nurse is a big, strong woman.

Other augmentative terminations are: -azo, -acho, -onazo, -achón, -ote, -astro, -aco,

Augmentative terminations have no determinate meaning: they are vague and indefinite and consequently when preciseness is required we must use the adjectives "grande," "pequeño," etc. (which can be employed conjointly with the terminations), as:

Me dió dos librones gruesos y tres libritos delgados.
He gave me two heavy big books and three small ones.


Continue
Learn Vocabulary
Use Vocabulary
Related Topics
 
  Vocabulary Flashcards
  Vocabulary Quiz
  Photo Quiz
  Spelling Quiz
  Sentence Flashcards
  Video
  Example Sentences
  Dialogue
  Image-Sentence Match
  Word Order Quiz
  Multiple Choice Quiz
  A or B Quiz
  Fill In

Icon Legend

Icons are color coded by Spanish level:

Green = Beginner
Blue = Intermediate
Orange = Advanced


Black icons are unrelated to Spanish level:

Help
Download
Information







Popular Phrase: chile in spanish | Learn Spanish Free | Conjugated Verb: cojear - to lame, to limp [ click for full conjugation ]