It’s Professor Dave, let’s look at altered words.
In Italian, there are suffixes that can be used in order to alter or slightly modify
the original meaning of certain nouns, adjectives, or even adverbs.
These suffixes refer to size or quality, and often even express the speaker’s opinion
about a particular person or object.
Although these suffixes are extremely common in Italian, their use is rather idiomatic,
and beginners should be discouraged from using them gratuitously without checking with a
dictionary or native speaker.
Not all words will automatically combine with all the suffixes, and modifications to the
root word may be required.
The modified word usually retains the original gender, so caution must be paid.
With these disclaimers in mind, let’s learn some of these fun altered words now.
The first type of altered word is the diminutivo.
This suffix, which is INO or INA, depending on gender, implies that an object is especially small.
For example, scarpa means shoe.
But if you have a scarpina, that would be a tiny shoe.
Some other examples of the diminutivo are as follows.
This suffix, which is ETTO or ETTA, depending on gender, implies that an object is particularly cute.
So again, instead of simply scarpa, una scarpetta is a very cute shoe.
This can also imply affection or endearment.
This suffix, ONE or ONA, implies largeness, in either a literal or figurative sense.
So if the scarpa becomes scarpona, that’s a big shoe.
The only trick here is that sometimes the gender will change.
Una donna, un donnone, so for whatever reason, a large woman is considered masculine.
This isn’t limited to outdated sexism.
Lastly, there is the dispregiativo, or peggiorativo.
Here, the suffix ACCIO or ACCIA implies ugliness or unpleasantness.
So if scarpa becomes scarpaccia, that is one ugly shoe.
This might seem mean, but Italians just like to use colorful language like this.
Once again, these altered nouns are fun to use, but don’t go sprinkling them into your
speaking all willy-nilly.
It’s best to just use words that you have heard already, try to avoid inventing your own.
Some will be used commonly, so they will be fair game.
Let’s practice altering a few nouns.
Now that covers the nouns, but as we said before, we can alter adverbs as well.
Some of these will be familiar from way back when we talked about how one can respond when
being asked “How are you?”
It doesn’t end there, there are lots of other suffixes that can be used to make some
pretty interesting words.
Sometimes these involve a special interfix that is used between the base and the normal suffix.
We won’t worry about learning all of these, and you may pick up a few of them on your
own, but we may as well look at a few of them just for fun.
And that’s it for altered words, which are a fun and unique aspect of the Italian language.
So now, when your Italian grandmother asks whether you want a gelatino, you can say:
no, io vorrei un gelatone!
Let’s check comprehension.