Suffixes called augmentatives are added to words to indicate augmentation. One example in English is:
ball --> balloon
The Spanish suffixes on (masculine), and ona (feminine) denote augmentation:
libro - book ---> librón - large book hombre - man ---> hombrón - big, strong man grande - big ---> grandón - really, really big
Note: Feminine nouns generally take the suffix on and become masculine: una mujer - woman ---> un mujerón: a big, strong woman
Many people are not aware of this rule, so you will often hear sentences like the one below: La enfermera es una mujerona.
The nurse is a big, strong woman.
Augmentative terminations have no determinate meaning: they are vague and indefinite and consequently when preciseness is required we must use the adjectives "grande," "pequeño," etc. (which can be employed conjointly with the terminations), as:
Me dió dos librones gruesos y tres libritos delgados.
He gave me two heavy big books and three small ones.
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