Gordita: the little fat one and the Spanish suffix “ito/-a”

 Like many other words in Spanish, to form the plural form, an “s” is added to  the end of the word. So the plural of gordita reads “gorditas“.

The word “gordita”  is not only used to call this delicious mexican  food but it also finds itself many other places in the Spanish vocabulary.

Gordita and its masculine form “gordito“  are used as adjectives in Spanish.

Let us start with their root which is ”gordo/-a“:

In Spanish “gordo” and “gorda” are used as adjectives to describe a fat person:

• gordo fat (masculine)
• gorda fat (feminine)

By adding the suffix “ito/-a”, some kind of affection can be indicated. So,

• gordito and gordita are used to refer a cute fat boy or a cute fat girl respectively. Sometimes gordito/a is translated as “the little fat one” as well.

There is another meaning of  ”gordito/a”:

• at times you may hear that a girlfriend or boyfriend is called as gordita or gordito as well.

Words ending in -ito and its feminine equivalent -ita  are very common in Spanish, so you will come across them very often.

1. The way it is used most often is to make a word refer to something smaller. For instance;

• perro means dog, perrito means puppy, small dog
• gato means cat, gatito means kitten
• casa is house and casita is little house
• mesa is table and mesita is little table

2. As seen from the explanations on gordito above, -ito  is used also in order to indicate some affection. Hence, in many other cases it can be added to the end of the words to do the same job. Such as

• abuela means  ”grandmother”. If you say mi abuelita you mean something like “my dear grandmother“
• in a similar way, one can call his/her dad in a more affectionate way as “papito” instead of papá.
• hermano is brother and hermanito is little brother.

3. -ito is used very often to introduce friendliness. In this case, it does not change the meaning of the word, it just gives a more friendly tone.

For example,

• un momentito, por favor (just a moment please), instead of using  ”moment” ;
• un refresquito, por favor (a refreshment, please), instead of using “refresco”;
• besitos (kisses), instead of saying just besos,

you are being especially  friendly.

4. -ito is used to emphasize the meaning of an adverb

• ahora now; ahorita just now
• despacio slowly; despacito really slowly
• rapido;rapidly;  rapidito really rapidly

In this case, ito/a  is used to intensify the meaning of the adverbs.

Apart from these common uses, -ito can be used while making a baby talk and also to mean that something is unimportant, for example centavo means cent and centavito is used to refer to an amount of money which is very little.

IMMERSE YOURSELF

Gorditas de Requesón (gorditas filled with cottage cheese)