Learn about diminutives in Swedish
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Intro |
|---|
| Alisha: What are diminutives and how are they formed in Swedish? |
| Jesper: And are they commonly used? |
| Alisha: At SwedishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following scenario, Hanna Hakansson points out a cute kitten to her daughter, Hedda Hakansson. She says, |
| "Look at the kitten!" |
| Hanna Håkansson: Titta på kattungen! |
| Dialogue |
| Hanna Håkansson: Titta på kattungen! |
| Hedda Håkansson: Söt! |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| Hanna Håkansson: Titta på kattungen! |
| Alisha: "Look at the kitten!" |
| Hedda Håkansson: Söt! |
| Alisha: "Cute!" |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: Did you notice how Hanna replaces the word, |
| Jesper: katt |
| Alisha: with |
| Jesper: kattungen? |
| Alisha: She attaches the suffix, |
| Jesper: -ungen |
| Alisha: to create what is called a diminutive, or, |
| Jesper: diminutiv |
| Alisha: A diminutive is a word that has been modified to convey the smallness of its root meaning. In Swedish, it is also used to express one's affection toward another person. Thus, in Swedish, diminutives are often used for affectionate names. Diminutives are created by attaching certain affixes to nouns, and in some cases, adjectives and verbs. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Alisha: Let's take a closer look to understand this better. Do you remember how Hanna says, "Look at the kitten?" |
| [pause 4 seconds] |
| Jesper as Hanna Håkansson: Titta på kattungen! |
| Alisha: Here, Hanna attaches the suffix, |
| Jesper: -ungen |
| Alisha: to the root noun, |
| Jesper: katt |
| Alisha: which means "cat," in Swedish. The suffix is derived from the word, |
| Jesper: ung |
| Alisha: which means "young," and is often attached to names of animal offsprings. Another example would be |
| Jesper: fågelunge |
| Alisha: which means "chick," or "small bird." The suffix in question can also be attached to names of people to create diminutives like |
| Jesper: jäntunge |
| Alisha: which means "little girl." Diminutives in Swedish are also used in affectionate names. For instance, we have the name |
| Jesper: Kajsa, |
| Alisha: which is a diminutive of the name |
| Jesper: Karin |
| Alisha: There's also the name |
| Jesper: Gittan, |
| Alisha: which is derived from the name |
| Jesper: Brigitta |
| Alisha: For males, we have names like |
| Jesper: Jonte |
| Alisha: which is a diminutive of |
| Jesper: Jonatan |
| Alisha: We also have the name |
| Jesper: Theo |
| Alisha: a diminutive of the name |
| Jesper: Theodor |
| Alisha: And, finally, there's the name |
| Jesper: Hasse |
| Alisha: which is a diminutive of the name |
| Jesper: Hans |
| Alisha: As you can see, there are no rules on how to form diminutives for people's names. Most of the time, it's not simply to shorten the name but to make the name sound sweeter or cuter. |
| [Summary] |
| Alisha: So far, we have learned that diminutives are words that have been modified to convey the smallness of their root meaning. In Swedish, they are often used in names of animal offsprings, as well as for forming affectionate names for family members. |
| Expansion |
| Alisha: What makes Swedish diminutives unique is that they are formed not only by attaching suffixes but also prefixes to root words. In fact, most Swedish diminutives are formed using prefixes. One such prefix is |
| Jesper: mini- |
| Alisha: such as in the word |
| Jesper: minilektion |
| Alisha: which means "mini lesson." Another one is |
| Jesper: lill- |
| Alisha: such as in the word |
| Jesper: lillördag |
| Alisha: which means "little Saturday," a term used to refer to midweek afterwork activities. Another common Swedish diminutive prefix is |
| Jesper: små- |
| Alisha: such as in the word |
| Jesper: småbarn |
| Alisha: or "toddler," and the word |
| Jesper: småsur |
| Alisha: which means "a bit angry." Finally, there's the prefix, |
| Jesper: pytte- |
| Alisha: which is used for words like |
| Jesper: pytteliten |
| Alisha: which means "tiny" or "exceptionally small." As we learned earlier, Swedish has diminutive suffixes as well. Aside from what we have already discussed, there's also the suffix |
| Jesper: -ling |
| Alisha: such as in the word |
| Jesper: älling |
| Alisha: which means "young duck." Interestingly, there's another way to say "young duck" or "duckling" in Swedish, and it's with the use of the diminutive suffix, |
| Jesper: -unge |
| Alisha: The word is |
| Jesper: ankunge |
| Cultural Insight |
| Alisha: In colloquial Swedish, you will also find the suffix |
| Jesper: -is |
| Alisha: used in forming diminutives. Most of the diminutives formed with this suffix are purely from the creativity of the Swedish people. For instance, take the word |
| Jesper: godis |
| Alisha: which means "candy." Breaking the word down, you will get the root, |
| Jesper: god |
| Alisha: which means "good." Add the diminutive suffix, and you get "tiny goods." And then there's the word |
| Jesper: kompis |
| Alisha: a diminutive meaning "buddy." It is said to have been derived from the word, |
| Jesper: kompanjon |
| Alisha: which means "partner." Be careful, though, because not all Swedish words that end in this suffix are diminutives. The good thing is that you will easily recognize these non-diminutive words with their long "i" sound. |
Outro |
| Alisha: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Jesper: Vi ses! |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
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