Spanish: An Essential Grammar

International suffixes

A number of Spanish suffixes have equivalents in other European

languages. The most common of these are -aje (English ‘-age’), -ción

(English ‘-tion’), -ismo(English ‘-ism’) and -ista (English ‘-ist’):

pasaje passage

estación station

turismo tourism

socialista socialist

Affective suffixes

In Spanish certain suffixes are attached to nounsto convey smallness or

lesser importance (these are called diminutives), or largeness and greater

importance (augmentatives). Many of these suffixes can also convey an

emotional quality such as affection or they can express scorn (pejorative

or depreciative suffixes).

Although less commonly, these suffixes may also be used in Spanish with

other parts of speech such as adjectivesand adverbs.

The following suffixes are a rich and distinctive feature of contemporary

Spanish, with considerable regional variations in their use within the

Iberian Peninsula and throughout Latin America. Except in cases where a

diminutive or augmentative form has become an established word, learners

of Spanish should only use them when experience has given them the

knowledge and confidence to be able to do so appropriately.

Diminutive suffixes

(a) -ito, -illo, -uelo

These are the most common diminutive suffixes, with feminine forms in

-a. They occur in slightly different forms depending on the word to which

they are added.

The simple forms -ito, -illoand -ueloare added to the base word after

removing the final vowel (-oor -a):

clavo nail clavito small nail

cera wax cerilla match

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Suffixes

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