Spanish Suffixes II

The suffix -mente in Spanish grammar, is the equivalent of –ly in English. It is added to adjectives to describe verbs. For example, the word feliz means happy, but if we add –mente to it, it becomes felizmente, meaning happily. It can be used in this way. La niña me vio felizmente, agradeciéndome el regalo con sus ojos. (The girl looked at me happily, thanking me for the gift with her eyes).

A simple noun can be changed into a place of manufacturing, production, or sales of that same noun by adding the suffix –ería to the end. If the word ends in a vowel, you may need to drop the vowel before adding the suffix –ería. For example, zapato means shoe in Spanish. To change this root word you would drop the ending ‘o’ and add –ería. So the final result would be zapatería, meaning a shoe store. You could also use it for tortilla, turning a single tortilla into a tortillería. This term would refer to the store or stand selling the fresh tortillas, although sometimes the tortillas are made at the same facility. The suffix -ería can also be the ending of the name of a trade, i.e. carpentry and carpintería.

Next, we have the suffix, -idad. –idad is the Spanish equivalent of the English suffix –ity. Similarly to the purpose in English, universe becomes university, and in Spanish universo becomes universidad. Similarly, public and publicity would be easily recognizable in Spanish as público and publicidad.

Finally, scaffolding off of my previous article called Spanish Suffixes, the suffix –ísimo adds a great deal of emphasis to a word. The word guapo, meaning handsome, together with the Spanish suffix –ísimo would become guapísimo. As is the case with the other suffixes, many times the ending vowel is dropped to add the suffix as most suffixes begin with a vowel. An ugly female would be called fea, meaning unattractive, yet if someone wanted to be very offensive or insinuate that she is extremely unattractive, she might be referred to as feísima. Of course, one would expect more courtesy out of most.

–ísimo is the only suffix from this list that does change gender depending on the root adjective it is added to. For male words, –ísimo is used, and for female words –ísima would be used. This can be tricky sometimes, but like all Spanish grammar, can be mastered with attention and practice.