# Diminutive and nicknames



## Shin_Shinigami

Hi people

I started study Russian for curiosity and I've a doubt. How can I use diminutive in nouns or adjectives? And nicknames? In Russian, it exists some rule for the formation of diminutive and nicknames?


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## outminded

Shin_Shinigami, do you want to know, how to inflect nicknames and diminutives?

show me your example


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## Esc

Okay, I am "only allowed to post URLs to other sites after I have made 30 posts or more".
So go to wikipedia and search there for diminitive yourself. It's a pretty good article with good examples, at least for Russian language.
BTW, Russian is very big on diminitives. You can spend your whole life and still not master the high art of creating them.


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## Shin_Shinigami

*Well... I tried it but in wikipedia the article is not very specific... I would like to know if Russian grammair have a rule for this, influenced by termination of word or pronunciation or by the sex of the person in question. 

For example... What's the possible nickname for "Andrei"? (please, correct me if this name is not correctly writen). Or, how could I write "cat" in diminutive?

*


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## Esc

I am afraid there are no specific rules. For example, diminitive to Andrei would be Andreika or Andryusha. But for Sergei who looks very much alike, it would be Seryozha. For Nikolai it would be Kolya.
And I think it's like that in any language. By what rule do you convert Richard into Dick or Jose into Pepe?

With regular nouns there are some rules, I beleive, but they must be really complicated. Generaly, you use suffixes -ik-, -onk-, -enk-, -chk-, -ochk-, and other combinations of letters k, ch and variuos vowels. Sorry, I cannot be more specific. I started thinking about it and then my head started spinning.


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## Anatoli

Shin_Shinigami said:


> *Well... I tried it but in wikipedia the article is not very specific... I would like to know if Russian grammair have a rule for this, influenced by termination of word or pronunciation or by the sex of the person in question.
> 
> For example... What's the possible nickname for "Andrei"? (please, correct me if this name is not correctly writen). Or, how could I write "cat" in diminutive?
> 
> *


Andrei:
Андр_е_й -> Андр_ю_ша, Андр_ю_шка, Андр_ю_шечка

cat:
кот -> к_о_т*ик*
к_о_шка  -> к_о_ш*ечка* 
кот_ё_нок - кот_ё_но*чек*

Some pattern:
*
Words ending in -a (masc. and fem.)*
книга-книжечка, ложка-ложечка, полка-полочка, Вася-Васечка, Таня-Танечка

*Masculine words ending in hard consonants:*
карандаш-карандашик (карандашичек), столб-столбик (столбичек); столбец, конец-кончик, палец-пальчик

Творог-творожок

Конь-конёк, пень-пенёк

Молоко-молочко, окно-окошко

Diminutives can take different forms and levels. Just look at more examples perhaps.

I haven't seen it described well, if I find any links I post here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diminutive#Russian

Check Russian specific forum:
http://masterrussian.net/mforum/viewtopic.php?t=1858&highlight=diminutives


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## outminded

Esc, there are specific rules.

1) -чик, -ик (стульчик, шкафчик, кораблик)
2) -ок (котенок, мышонок)
3) -чк, -ек (кофточка, вилочка, платочек, молоточек)


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## Hutschi

Hi, for "Андр_е_й", is there also "Андрюшен*ь*ка"?

Is "...шен*ь*ка" ("...ен*ь*ка", "...он*ь*ка") productive for building the diminutive?


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## Anatoli

Hutschi said:


> Hi, for "Андр_е_й", is there also "Андрюшенка"?
> 
> Is "...шенка" ("...енка", "...онка") productive for building the diminutive?


It's Андрюшен*ь*ка, yes, these suffixes are productive.

Маша - Машенька
Надя - Наденька/Надюшка
Катя - Катенька

There could be changes to the root/stem of words, so you have to be careful when creating diminutives and not 100% words have one and some diminutives are more common than words without the suffixes and some cna sound weird and are not used, except for by kids or when making fun!

солнце - солнышко
полотенце - полотенечко

Words, I can't think of diminutives and best be avoided:  компьютер,  диск,  болезнь,  жизнь,  all words ending in -ция, - зия, -сия.


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## Shin_Shinigami

Everybody helps me so much!! Thank you!

I understand this rules... Right now, I need just translate the cirilic alphabet for latin alphabet, but it's simple, it is?

Thank you again!


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## Anatoli

Shin_Shinigami said:


> Everybody helps me so much!! Thank you!
> 
> I understand this rules... Right now, I need just translate the Cyrillic alphabet for Latin alphabet, but it's simple, it is?
> 
> Thank you again!



Yes, it's easy. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_alphabet


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## Crescent

However, may I please have the honour of saying (although this may not be awfully topical.. Sorry, Jana!  ) that sometimes, there are cases when you form a diminuative with a noun, and then it means something totally and completely different.
The cutest one I can think of is:
дождь -----> дожд*ик 
Дождик, *although it _can mean_ the diminuative of _rain_, has a slightly different conotation, especially around children. (how do you think I know it?   ). It means _tinsel_!! Tada! 
Isn't that just _adorable_??


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## Anatoli

Зонтик [zontik] (umbrella)- from Dutch Zondek. Later a new word was formed - зонт. -ик was thought to be a diminutive suffix but it's part of the word in Dutch.


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## outminded

Shin_Shinigami, you can use some kind of translit services, google it 

Jana, sorry, I just wanted to help  is libru really illegal?


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## Jana337

outminded said:


> Shin_Shinigami, you can use some kind of translit services, google it
> 
> Jana, sorry, I just wanted to help  is libru really illegal?


Yes, it contains a lot of illegal material (as a rule of thumb, copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author; translations into foreign languages have their own rules). It smacks of troubles for WordReference according to the US laws (that's where WR is incorporated). But quick googling revealed that the webpage was illegal by Russian laws, too. Interesting insights here (scroll down).

Jana


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## kpacotka

Shin_Shinigami said:


> *Well... I tried it but in wikipedia the article is not very specific... I would like to know if Russian grammair have a rule for this, influenced by termination of word or pronunciation or by the sex of the person in question. *
> 
> *For example... What's the possible nickname for "Andrei"? (please, correct me if this name is not correctly writen). Or, how could I write "cat" in diminutive?*


 
Ah! My son's name is Andrei (except we spell it Andrey  although Andrei is not wrong). The nicknames are: Andryusha, Andryushinka, Andreika and Andryushinka synochik. Sorry ... I have not learned how to display cyrillic yet.


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## albertoF

Hi, if you want to use a translit, check this one out

rusklaviatura.com

Merry Christmas to everyone! C рождеством!


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## outminded

krasotka,

Андрей Андрюша Андрюшенька Андрейка Андрюшенька сыночек
Andrej Andrjusha Andrjushen'ka Andrejka Andrjushen'ka synochek


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## kpacotka

outminded said:


> krasotka,
> 
> Андрей Андрюша Андрюшенька Андрейка Андрюшенька сыночек
> Andrej Andrjusha Andrjushen'ka Andrejka Andrjushen'ka synochek


 
 I understand cyrillic, but I don't know how to get my computer to use/display it, so until I figure it out, I have to transliterate. I know that it is annoying to try to read transliterated Russian. Sorry


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## kpacotka

albertoF said:


> Hi, if you want to use a translit, check this one out
> 
> rusklaviatura.com
> 
> Merry Christmas to everyone! C рождеством!


 
большое спасибо, С рождестBом тебе тоже!


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## Crescent

kpacotka said:


> большое спасибо, (и тебя тоже -- You'd usually put it at the beginning) с рождеством теб*я* тоже!


Sorry for the little correction!


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## kpacotka

I thought that тебя changes to тебе when it is an indirect object? Maybe not .... I realize that the order I put the sentences in is less Russian, but it's a second language for me, and I have become a little out of practice/rusty, despite marrying a man from Russia! The Russian community I live in now is more difficult to practice Russian with compared to the community lived in before, and they speak Russian in a very different way. It's like learning an intermediate level of English from British people and then moving somewhere in the backwoods of an Alabama bayou to maintain/cultivate the English you learned. It's more like I need to learn everything all over again ...


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## outminded

krasotka, you can practice in Russian as much as you want, you should just to find any russian forum, e.g. exler, and write and read there. (my English is not so good, but I hope you understand, what would I say).


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## Crescent

kpacotka said:


> I thought that тебя changes to тебе when it is an indirect object? Maybe not ....


Don't worry about it! It's only a tiny mistake and besides, we're here to help you learn, so visit our forum and you'll develop your Russian skills very quickly! 
Now, for the explanation:
Not necessarily: in this particular case, the verb which is ''hidden'' there is: Поздравлять. _'Поздравляю тебя с Рождеством!' _= (literally) I congratulate you with Christmas (but of course in English we say:I _wish _you a Merry Christmas!) 
Поздровлять *кого /чего?* takes the _genetive case_ (родительный падеж) and it's therefore: с Рождеством  теб*я*! 

Hopefully my explanation wasn't too confusing, and if it was please tell us and we will try to explain it to you more clearly! 
And... С Рождеством Вас и С новым Годом!


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