Spanish Augmentatives

Augmentatives | Diminutives

In Spanish, suffixes called augmentatives can be added to nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and names to indicate bigness, as well as other ideas such as excessiveness, contempt, or disdain. In this way, you can say that something is big without adding an adjective like grande to indicate bigness or repugnante to indicate contempt.

Augmentatives change to match the gender and number of the word they modify. Common Spanish augmentatives:

 
Using Spanish augmentatives:

Augmentatives are less common than diminutives, and they are also easier to tack on.

1. Words that end in a consonant take the whole suffix:

2. When the word to be modified ends with a vowel, the vowel is dropped before adding the ending:

Diminutives     -ísimo

Spanish Grammar

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