# Augmentatives: -azo, -ón, -ote

> id: grammar.nouns.augmentatives · category: grammar · depth: standard · levels: B2 · review: internally_reviewed

**Summary.** -azo/-ón/-ote enlarge or intensify: golpazo, casona, grandote. -azo also means 'a blow with': un portazo (door slam).

Augmentative suffixes enlarge or intensify a noun, and often add an emotional colour. The common ones are -ón/-ona (un casón, un llorón), -azo/-aza (un exitazo, un golazo), and -ote/-ota (grandote, palabrota). They attach after dropping the final vowel: silla → sillón, éxito → exitazo.

The connotation is rarely neutral. -ón frequently becomes a character trait (llorón 'cry-baby', preguntón 'nosy'), -azo conveys admiration or bigness (un cochazo, un golazo), and -ote can be affectionate or pejorative (grandote, palabrota 'swear word').

-azo has a second, very productive sense: 'a blow or sudden strike with X'. So portazo ('door slam'), codazo ('jab with the elbow'), frenazo ('hard braking'), manotazo. In the press it even labels sudden measures or events: el tarifazo, el gasolinazo.

## Examples
- Cerró la puerta de un portazo. — He slammed the door.
- El partido fue un golazo tras otro. — The match was one great goal after another.
- Pegó un frenazo y casi chocamos. — He braked hard and we almost crashed.

Related: grammar.nouns.diminutives, grammar.nouns.suffixes-common

License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — Spanish Rules Library — spanishruleslibrary.com