Lesson Transcript

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to italianpod101.com.
My name is Desy.
Mi chiamo Desy.
And in this video, we're going to talk about name modifiers.
nomi alterati
Literally, name modifiers is modificatori di nome, modificatori, modifiers,
but what we call them is actually nomi alterati, altered name,
because they've been modified, of course, nomi alterati.
Now, there are four ways to make a nome alterato and we're going to see them together.
How do you do that?
Through a suffix, suffisso, suffisso, while suffissi is the plural form.
I know it's really hard, suffisso.
So this suffissi add a specific trait or characteristic to the name
and this addition of meaning is given by the speaker.
So the person who talks has a specific perspective on the thing,
they probably had a specific experience with them
and that's what made them think that way.
In fact, as I briefly mentioned before, there are four types of alteration
and those refer either to the size, so the dimension of the object
and I'm talking about accrescitivo and diminutivo.
We're going to see them later.
Or they express an emotional judgment on the thing.
So vezzeggiativo or dispreggiativo.
The first one is accrescitivo, accrescitivo,
accrescitivo, literally augmentative, accrescitivo,
because crescere means to grow.
In fact, it means that something is bigger than usual.
These endings are one or ona, depending if it's male or female,
one for male and ona for female.
So for example, if I say casa, house, home, it becomes casona,
ending with a again because it's female.
Accione or acciona and acchione or acchiona.
It all depends on the word.
Let's see some examples together.
Sediamoci tutti attorno a questo tavolone.
Let's all sit around this big table.
Sediamoci, let's sit, tutti, all of us, attorno, around, questo, this, tavolone.
So tavolo would be the normal name, the basic form,
while tavolone, you take the ending and you replace it with the suffix,
is the bigger tavolo in this case.
Il nostro allenatore è un omaccione.
Our coach, il nostro allenatore, è un omaccione.
It's a big man, omaccione.
You could also say omone.
It really depends on you.
So there's not really a correct form.
It all depends on how you want to convey what you want to say.
Omaccione, omone, omacchione.
I think omacchione is not that common, but no one could say that it's wrong.
Number two, diminutivo, diminutivo, diminutive.
Diminuire in fact literally means to diminish, so diminutivo,
something that is smaller than usual.
The most common suffix here is ino or ina.
Taking the same example as before, casa becomes casina, a small house.
But there are others like ello, ella, etto, etta, casetta,
iccello, icciolo, praticello, like a small grass field.
Prendo un panino con prosciutto e formaggio.
You all know the word panini and yes, that's the diminutive form of pane, bread.
Panino is a panino, a sandwich.
Prendo un panino, I take a sandwich with ham and cheese, con prosciutto e formaggio.
Puoi passarmi la bottiglietta d'acqua?
Puoi passarmi, can you pass me, la bottiglietta d'acqua?
The small bottle of water.
Bottiglia is the normal form, bottiglietta, the small one.
Number three, vezzeggiativo.
Vezzo literally means habit or quirk, like something peculiar.
I'd say but also something cute and nice.
In fact, this is a term of endearment, kind of a pet name, I'd also say.
I suffizi here, suffixes here are uccio or uccia, uzzo, uzza, olo, ola, otto, otta,
acchiotto, acchiotta.
And here, the most common one is orso, which is bear, orso, acchiotto.
It's the small one, the cute one, the teddy bear.
Ti vedo un po' debolluccio.
You seem a bit weak.
Ti vedo, I see you, like you appear to me.
Ti vedo un po' a bit debolluccio, comes from debole, weak, debolluccio.
So I don't want to say that you are weak in general, I'm just saying that you don't really
see him at your best.
Il cucciolotto sta giocando con la palla.
Il cucciolotto comes from cucciolo, which is already puppy, but cucciolotto is even
like the cuter way, the cuter form of a puppy.
Il cucciolotto sta giocando con la palla.
He's playing with the ball.
Sometimes this vezzeggiativo alteration is used in an ironical way.
For example, if I say tesoruccio, like deer, which is tesoro, already deer, but tesoruccio,
like my dearest deer, if it makes sense, I can't do all by myself.
Non posso fare tutto io.
And this, of course, doesn't really mean that you're giving them like a pen name or that
you're being affectionate.
It means that you're basically saying you're not the dearest in the world, so please move
a hand, you too.
Tesoruccio, non posso fare tutto io.
When it's not used ironically though, it means that you're really affectionate towards that
person or object.
The last one, number four, is dispregiativo, which comes from spregio, which is like disgust,
kind of.
Aversion, it is degradatory, I'd say.
Here, the most common one is astro, astra, aglia, ucolo, ucola, uncolo, uncola, uzzo,
uzza.
There are some more actually, but as I said, it really depends on which one you want to
use.
Ieri è stata una giornataccia.
Ieri è stata una giornataccia.
Yesterday was such a bad day.
Estata actually has been such a bad day from giornata, day, giornataccia, bad day.
È andato tutto storto.
Everything went wrong.
È andato tutto storto.
Giornataccia.
Quel ragazzaccio non mi piace.
Quel ragazzaccio non mi piace.
I don't like that naughty boy, like ragazzo is boy, ragazzaccio says already that you
don't like that boy or that you have reasons to think that he is not a good person.
So, to sum up, let's try to go through all the four ways of alteration with the same
name.
I'd choose scarpa, scarpa, shoe.
If I want to say a big shoe, I can say scarpona, right?
Scarpona.
In fact, scarponi, plural form, scarponi, sometimes it's used to refer to hiking boots
because they're big shoes.
Scarponi, for scarpona.
If I want to say that's a little shoe, scarpina, scarpina.
If I want to say that that's a cute shoe, scarpetta, scarpetta.
Let's say the one of Cinderella, for example.
It could be scarpina also, though, because it was really small, but also cute.
So, scarpina or scarpetta.
And if I want to say that that's a shoe that I really don't like, scarpaccia, for example.
Now, try to do the same with, for example, gatto, gatto.
It's just a cat, right?
So, try to write down all the four ways.
You can try and use different suffixes from the ones I used, but maybe all of them.
Just try and enjoy expressing your opinion on something without even having to say it.
Just alterate the name.
I hope I told you something that you didn't know about, so please like and subscribe.
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Thank you for watching. I'll see you soon. Bye, bye. Ciao, ciao.

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