Diminutization of noun
| There are two ways of forming the diminutive in German, by adding either -chen or -lein to a noun while umlauting the vowel in the root syllable if it can take an Umlaut, e.g. das Haus das Häuschen, der Tisch das Tischlein. These days -lein tends to sound a little poetic or archaic. In practice -chen is much more commonly used than -lein, so stick to -chen yourself. All diminutized nouns, whatever their original gender, become neuter once they take either of these endings.
Although in theory any (usually only) monosyllabic noun can be diminutized in either of these ways, it is best not to use diminutives you have not seen or heard before; they are seldom necessary. If you want to say ‘a small card’, for example, that can be just as well expressed by eine kleine Karte as by ein (kleines) Kärtchen. Although the diminutized form generally expresses a smaller example of whatever the noun is, there are numerous recognized diminutive forms that render a new item of vocabulary, e.g. a Fräulein is not a small Frau but an unmarried woman, Mädchen (diminutive of archaic die Maid ‘maiden’) is the usual word for girl, and a Brötchen is a breadroll, not a small loaf of bread. ‘Male’ and ‘female’ of animals are rendered by the words Männchen and Weibchen, which theoretically can also mean ‘little man’ and ‘little woman’, but the latter is a good example of the added semantic connotations that can occur when a noun is diminutized and why you should be careful with diminutives because Weibchen can also mean ‘the little woman’ (i.e. the wife) or a ‘dumb broad’. The young of animals are often diminutive forms, e.g. Kätzchen (kitten), Wölfchen (wolf cub). |
In southern German the endings -l, -el, -erl and -ele are commonly heard and occasionally written, e.g. das Mäde(r)l, das Backhendl ( Backhähnchen ‘roast chicken’), das Dirndl(kleid) (traditional female costume in the south). In Switzerland the ending -li is used in spoken German, e.g. das Müesli (muesli), das Maidli (girl), das Tischli (table).
Using a diminutive ending does not prevent you from also using an adjective like klein (small) or winzig (tiny) with the noun in question if you want to impart how minute something is, e.g. Meine Tante hat ein kleines Ferienhäuschen auf Helgoland. Diminutives are particularly common in fairytales, whose titles frequently contain a diminutive too, e.g. Aschenbrödel/Aschenputtel (Cinderella),Dornröschen (Sleeping Beauty), Hänsel und Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Rotkäppchen (Little Red Riding Hood), Rumpelstilzchen (Rumpelstiltskin) |
