German diminutives
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The German language uses the endings -chen and -lein to create diminutive forms of nouns.
The grammatical gender of all nouns in diminutive form is neuter.
For diminutives the inflexion rules for forming plurals (in particular umlauting) apply:
| die Schwester | -> | das Schwesterchen | das Schwesterlein |
| das Kind | -> | das Kindchen | das Kindlein |
| der Hase | -> | das Häschen | das Häslein |
| die Maus | -> | das Mäuschen | das Mäuslein |
| die Hose | -> | das Höschen | das Höslein |
| der Bruder | -> | das Brüderchen | das Brüderlein |
Nouns with diminutive endings are not altered when in plural:
| die Maus | -> | die Mäuse |
| das Mäuschen | -> | die Mäuschen |
Notes:
1) The endings are added to the stem, so the SCH in "Häschen" is pronounced like an S followed by a CH (for some speakers J), never like a German SCH.
2) The two endings are virtually interchangable, although many speakers give preference to one of the two forms (??depending on dialect).
Only under very rare circumstances may there be a difference in meaning
between diminutive endings:
| der Bauer (farmer) | -> | das Bäuerlein (peasant) | das Bäuerchen (a baby's belch) |
3) Speakers of some southern German dialects use the ending -le (Swabian), -li (Swiss German), -el (Alsatian, Pfalzisch).
| Swabian | die Gasse | -> | s Gässle (das Gässchen?) |
| Swabian | die Maus | -> | s Mäisle (das Mäuschen) |
| Swiss German | de Gassi (die Gasse) | -> | s Gässli (das Gässchen?) |
| Swiss German | de Muus (die Maus) | -> | s Müüsli (das Mäuschen) |
| Alsatian | die Gass (die Gasse) | -> | s Gässel (das Gässchen?) |
| Alsatian | die Muus | -> | s Müüsel |
Southern German dialects also like using the diminutive in everyday speech (e.g. Swabian 'guts nächtle'), whereas in other German dialects it's not as 'abused'.
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