Instead of exclaiming it’s a small world! to express surprise at unexpected encounters in a huge world, the Spanish call it a handkerchief: el mundo es un pañuelo
There are more occasions than this where pequeño – small isn’t required to get across the idea that something isn’t big because Spanish tacks on suffixes that cut things down to size.
Thes eare –ito and illo as well as the more regional -ico, ín, ino and –iño. These and their feminine versions can be added to the word of your choice, so although a puppy is un cachorro it can be made into an even more puppyish cachorrito.
 |
| A miniscule but adult moggy |
A small dog of any age is un perrito, un perillo or un perrico. Likewise un gato – a cat becomes a kitten or a miniscule but adult moggy when called un gatito, gatillo, gatico, gatino or gatín.
A noun or adjective ending in -o or -a drops this before tacking on the suffix of choice: chair – silla, sillita; table – mesa, mesilla.
A word ending in -l needs no modification so tree – árbol becomes arbolito but the beady-eyed will notice that it loses its accent because once a suffix is added, that’s where the stress falls.
Words ending in -e or -n acquire -c before -ito and -illo: car (coche)- cochecito; cloud (nube) - nubecilla; heart (corazón) - corazoncito, corazoncillo.
Un pájaro – a bird becomes a fledgling when it is un pajarillo or pajarito while un cuadro – a picture can be reduced to un cuadrito.
Urban Spaniards, especially those from central Spain, regard -ico as well as –ín and ino as rustic-sounding, to put it kindly. Nonetheless, you still hear them and in Murcia, for instance, it is possible to turn un poco – a little into an even smaller un poquico.
City-dwellers are no better, though. Listen hard enough and you’ll catch un madrileño saying un poquitín, a double diminutive in danger of shrinking into nothingness.
Ín and ino often attach themselves to first names, so Pedro can become Pedrín or Pedrito, and instead of shortening Margarita you can make it longer and sweeter: Margaritina.
The Spanish do not use caro – dear as an endearment but instead add -iño and turn it into a very loving noun: cariño – darling, appropriate for males and females alike, despite its –o ending.
Chico – boy and chica – girl are often turned into chiquitín and chiquitina as well as chiquitito and chiquitita. All are suitable for anything undersized but are also endearments between outsize adults, because as well as smallness a suffix frequently indicates affection.
Thus love converts mi amor into mi amorcito (again, suitable for either sex) and the object of affection understands that despite being addressed as a small love, little things mean a lot in this context.
A suffix can be ironic, so an invitation like ¿comemos una paellita? – how about a spot of paella? heralds a marathon blow-out. The adjective gracioso – nice, appealing is not always so nice and can be less than appealing when transformed into the sarcastic graciosillo.
Guapito damns faintly with diminutives because an adult thus described may still be guapo – handsome but there could be less than beauty in the eye of the beholder.
Some people use diminutives more than others but once started, the practice can become addictive and is responsible for phrases like daos prisita instead of daos prisa for hurry up or hasta lueguito instead of hasta luego – so long.
And take care when making a dimutive out of female servants – criadas because not even the wildest imagination could turn criadillas into tiny maids (they’re calves' testicles).
