About

Spanish diminutive formation follows a rule system governed by syllable count, final phoneme, and stress placement. The suffix -ito/-ita is default, but words ending in -e, monosyllables, and consonant-final stems require -ecito, -cito, or other allomorphs. Orthographic adjustments are mandatory: c → qu before -ito, z → c, g → gu. Errors in diminutive formation mark a speaker as non-native immediately. This tool applies the Real Academia Española rules algorithmically, with a curated exception table for irregulars like pie → piececito and mamá → mamita. Regional variants (Mexico vs. Spain vs. Argentina) are flagged where applicable. The generator assumes standard Castilian orthography. Loanwords and neologisms not in the exception table will receive rule-based output, which may not match colloquial usage.

Formulas

The diminutive suffix selection follows a decision tree based on the terminal segment of the input word W and its syllable count n.

{

W_stem + -ito/-ita if W ends in -o/-a and n ≥ 2W_stem + -cito/-cita if W ends in -n or -rW_stem + -ecito/-ecita if n = 1W_stem + -ito/-ita if W ends in consonant

Orthographic mutation rules apply before suffixation:

z → c before -ito
c → qu before -ito
g → gu before -ito

Where W_stem is the base form after removing the terminal vowel (if applicable), n is the syllable count of the input word, and the gender suffix (-ito vs -ita) is determined by the grammatical gender of W.

Reference Data

Word Ending	Syllables	Suffix Applied	Orthographic Change	Example	Result
-o	≥ 2	-ito	None	gato	gatito
-a	≥ 2	-ita	None	casa	casita
-e	≥ 2	-ito/-ita	Drop -e	noche	nochecita
-e	1	-ecito/-ecita	Drop -e	pie	piececito
Consonant (not n,r)	Any	-ito/-ita	None	reloj	relojito
-n	Any	-cito/-cita	None	corazón	corazoncito
-r	Any	-cito/-cita	None	amor	amorcito
-z	Any	-ito/-ita	z → c	pez	pececito
-co	Any	-ito	c → qu	poco	poquito
-ca	Any	-ita	c → qu	chica	chiquita
-go	Any	-ito	g → gu	amigo	amiguito
-ga	Any	-ita	g → gu	hormiga	hormiguita
Monosyllable (vowel)	1	-ecito/-ecita	Varies	flor	florecita
-io	Any	-ito	Drop -io	limpio	limpiecito
-ia	Any	-ita	Drop -ia	lluvia	lluviecita
-é (stressed)	Any	-cito	None	café	cafecito
-á (stressed)	Any	-íta/-íto	Varies	mamá	mamita
-s	Any	-ito/-ita	None	Carlos	Carlitos
-l	Any	-ito/-ita	None	árbol	arbolito
Diphthong ue	Any	-ito/-ita	Diphthong preserved	pueblo	pueblito
Diphthong ie	Any	-ito/-ita	Diphthong preserved	fiesta	fiestita

Frequently Asked Questions

Spanish orthography requires that the /k/ sound before the front vowel "i" be spelled "qu" rather than "c". The letter "c" before "i" would produce an /s/ or /θ/ sound. This c→qu change is mandatory in diminutive formation for all words ending in "-co" or "-ca". The same principle applies to g→gu (amigo→amiguito) to preserve the hard /g/ sound.

The tool uses a heuristic: words ending in "-a" are treated as feminine (suffix '-ita'), words ending in "-o" as masculine ('-ito'). For words ending in consonants or "-e", the tool defaults to masculine unless the word appears in an internal exceptions list of known feminine nouns (e.g., "flor", "noche", 'calle'). Proper nouns follow the same rule unless overridden. This heuristic is approximately 95% accurate for common Spanish nouns.

Certain words like "pan" (pancito in Mexico, panecito in Spain) or "papá" (papito vs. papacito) have documented regional variation. The generator produces the most widely accepted form as the primary result and displays regional alternatives in a tooltip. The tooltip is triggered on hover or keyboard focus, listing the variant forms with their associated regions.

Yes. Words ending in stressed vowels like "café" (→cafecito) or "mamá" (→mamita) have specific rules. Stressed final vowels typically trigger the "-cito" suffix rather than simple vowel replacement. The generator also manages accent removal or shifting when the stress pattern changes due to suffixation, following RAE orthographic norms.

Monosyllabic words (one syllable: "flor", "pan", "pie", 'sol') typically require the longer suffix "-ecito/-ecita" to maintain rhythmic balance in the resulting word. A form like "solito" (from 'sol') would sound incomplete. The "-ecito" form ('solecito') adds the necessary syllabic weight. This is a well-documented rule in Spanish morphology, though some monosyllables have established short forms that override the rule.

The generator is optimized for singular nouns and adjectives. Plural inputs (ending in "-s" or '-es') will be processed but may produce non-standard forms. Spanish diminutives are typically formed on the singular stem, then pluralized: "gato" → "gatito" → "gatitos". Verbs do not take diminutive suffixes in standard Spanish. The tool will attempt to process them but results are not guaranteed to be linguistically valid.