Diminutive Suffixes in German
...
LanguageLearningBase.com (short: llb.re) is an online community for learning foreign languages.
It represents an open knowledge base. Every member can share and gain knowledge about a new language.
Diminutive Suffixes in German
Diminutives are more frequently used than in English. Some words only exist in the diminutive form, e.g. "Kaninchen" ("rabbit") derived from Old French word 'conin', which in turn is from the Latin diminutive cuniculus.
The diminutive is formed in standard German by adding the suffixes –chen or –lein.
You need to remember three main things about them:
Examples:
If the last letter is a vowel, it is often omitted when forming a diminutive:
There's also a separate diminutive "-i/-y" form mainly used with person names:
Dialects, particularly Southern ones, offer many further possible suffixes, including "-ke", "-le", "-li", "-l", and "-erl". Nicknames frequently receive an "-i" or "-ie" ("Hansi", "Berti", "Angie").