Augmentatives: -azo, -ón, -ote

Erklärung

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.

Beispiele

Verwandte Regeln

• Diminutives: -ito, -ita and friends
• Building nouns: -ería, -ero, -ista, -ción, -miento