CARROTTA
carrotta.net
🔍 Compendium
Grammar
IT
Italiano — Altered nouns
Italian reshapes a noun's meaning with suffixes instead of separate adjectives: casina is a small house, ragazzone a big boy. These 'alterati' add smallness, largeness, affection or scorn.
1
How it works
✓ Rule
Drop the final vowel of the noun and add a suffix, keeping its gender: casa → casina, ragazzo → ragazzone. The main groups are diminutives -ino, -etto, -ello (tavolino, casetta, asinello), the augmentative -one (librone), and the pejorative -accio (ragazzaccio, parolaccia).
2
Examples
| Suffix | Value | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -ino / -ina | diminutive (small, endearing) | casa → casina; tavolo → tavolino |
| -etto / -etta | diminutive (small, neat) | casa → casetta; bacio → bacetto |
| -ello / -ella | diminutive (little) | asino → asinello; storia → storiella |
| -one / -ona | augmentative (big) | ragazzo → ragazzone; libro → librone |
| -accio / -accia | pejorative (bad, ugly) | ragazzo → ragazzaccio; parola → parolaccia |
| -otto / -otta | diminutive + sturdy/young | aquila → aquilotto; giovane → giovanotto |
3
Good to know
⚠ Note
Beware false alterati: many words just end this way without being altered forms. mattino is not a small matto, tacchino not a little tacco, and focaccia not a bad foca. When in doubt, check whether a real base noun exists — and note that gender may shift, as la mano becomes il manone.