Russian Classes: How to be sweet with diminutive suffixes

United Confectioners; Slavyanka

Привет!
Let’s explore Russian candy!
I’m sure you’ve heard of the first one - ’Алёнка’. It's the candy version of a famous Soviet chocolate bar. Interesting fact: ’Alenka’ was named after the daughter of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.

Along with ’Алёнка’ candies, ’Белочка’ and ’Батончик’ were also very popular in the USSR.

Grammar time! Here are some diminutive suffixes: -чик, -к, -очк, -ушк. And here are some examples, but without chocolate, unfortunately:

• блин -> блинчик
  pancake
• малина -> малинка
  raspberry
• яблоко -> яблочко
  apple
• Иван -> Иванушка
  Ivan

‼️Be careful with personal names and the suffix -к, as you risk switching to a different mode of communication without realizing it. Алёнка sounds nice, but it’s rather an exception (maybe because of the candy).

In personal names, the suffix -к may express not only intimacy and tenderness, but also derogation. It’s better to use other suffixes for diminutive nicknames, for example, Алёна - Алёнушка, Катя - Катюша, Маша - Машенька (the latter word in each pair is the cute version of a person's name). 

Check out more lessons in our Telegram channel, using the tag #russianclasses!

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