26 A SPANISH REFERENCE GRAMMAR

little flower; pobrecita, poor little girl; mismito, the very same; ahorita, " right" now. 113.

4. -illo may be added to nouns, adjectives, and participles; picarillo, young rogue; agudillo, slightly sharp; apuradillo, slightly troubled. 114.

5. -uelo is applied to nouns; reyezuelo, a poor specimen of a king. 115.

6. -ececito, -ececillo, -ececico, and -ecezuelo are added to monosyllables ending in a vowel: pie — piececito, piececillo, piececico, or piecezuelo, little foot. 116.

7. -ecito, -ecillo, -ecico, and -ezuelo are added to (a) monosyllables ending in a consonant or y : voz — vocecita, weak voice; (b) bisyllables whose first syllable contains one of the diphthongs ei, ie, or ue and which end in -a or -o: reina — reinecita, little queen; (c) bisyllables whose second syllable contains the diphthong ia, io, or ua: lengua — Ienguecita, little tongue; (d) many bisyllables ending in -io: frio — friecillo, slight cold; (e) polysyllables ending in -e: pobre — pobrecito, poor fellow. 117.

8. -cito, -cico, and -zuelo are added to polysyllables ending in n or r, and usually stressed on the last syllable: autor — autorcillo, little, cheap author. 118.

9. -ito,   -ico, and -uelo are added to words not included in the above classifications:

NOUNS AS ADJECTIVES   27

casita, little house; panuelo, handkerchief (from pario, cloth). 119.

to. A final unaccented vowel is removed before the augmentative or diminutive suffix is added. When suffixes beginning with e or i are added to stems ending in c, g, gu, or z, or the latter become respectively qu, gu,

c: voz — vocecita. See Tabla de Ortografia, page 188. 120.

There are frequent combinations of diminutives and augmentatives in the same word: hombronazo, big, lubberly man; grandillOn, biggish. 121.

7. NOUNS MAY NOT BE USED AS ADJECTIVES, as they often are in English. A preposition, usually de or para, is placed before the noun that in English would be used as an adjective: a gold watch = un -reloj de oro; a straw hat un sombrero de paja; a coffee cup = una taza para café; a sea voyage = un viaje por mar; a railway journey = un viaje en ferrocarril. But notice la madre patria, the mother country. See 177. 122.

8. NOUNS WITH SMALL INITIAL LETTER. Names of the week, months of the year, and adjectives of nationality used as nouns are written with small initial letter: el lunes; abril; un inglês, an Englishman. It is noticeable, however, that some users of Spanish write the months with capital initial: Mayo. 123.