Spanish word endings – they’re not all bad!

Groan, groan – the worst thing about Spanish for us English speakers are the endings of words.  We are condemned to learning a language in which a change in one final letter can make the difference between joy and despair in communicative situations.   However, there are some things about Spanish word endings which are really cool!   One of these is something called a ”diminutive” which just means making something smaller.  For example – “silla” – chair; ”sillita”  – little chair.  “perro” – dog;  “perrito” little dog.  Here is nice one: “caballo” – horse;  “caballito” – little horse; “caballito del mar” – little horse of the sea, in other words ”sea horse” – now how cool is that?

Another diminutive ending is “illo” and “illa” and also there are regional ones.  Here in Murcia they use “ico” and “ica” a lot.  These even appear in place names – La Puntica, Balsicas.

There you are, you see, not all word endings are horrible, some a quite fun!