Diminutive Suffix

A diminutive is a morphological form of a word which expresses smallness, youth, unimportance, or endearment. It is the opposite of a augmentative.

List of Diminutives

 * -ello / -ella
 * -itto / -itta
 * -ino / -ina
 * -olo / -ola

Diminutive Suffixes Explained
An example of using them to describe smallness would be: caso "house" > casitto "little house, cottage". fungo "mushroom" > fungello "little mushroom".

An example of using of them to describe youth would be: domina "lady" > dominella "young lady, maiden". querco "oak tree" > quercolo "young oak tree"

An example of using them to describe unimportance, or in other words, pejoratively, would be: plorare "to cry" > ploritto "whiner, complainer".

An example of using them to describe endearment would be: amoro "love" > amorino "lover".

Diminutive Interchangeability
The difference between using one suffix over another is solely up to what the speaker prefers to use, as in, which ever suffix the speaker thinks sounds better for a word. For example: casello, casitto, casino, casolo. All words mean the same thing ("little house").