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In the book Doña Perfecta, there is the dialogue:

¿Y viene mucho acá?

Toditos los días.

Nos acompaña mucho...

What does "todito" mean? I have a few theories:

  1. The same as "todo".
  2. Less frequently than "todo". The diminutive.
  3. The same as "todo" but an informal way of saying it.
  4. The same as "todo" but a cute way of saying it.
  5. Intensifier. A stronger meaning. "Every day" becomes "every single day". More often.

Is this word common or uncommon?

Is this a typical usage of the -ito suffix?

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4 Answers 4

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38.2.2 Uses of the diminutive suffix -ito

The main effects of this suffix are:

(a) To give a friendly tone to a statement...

(b) To modify the meaning of adjectives and adverbs by adding a warm tone, or, sometimes, by making them more precise - e.g. ahora 'now', ahorita 'right now', todo > todito 'all' > 'absolutely all'

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    Just wanted to add that in Dominican Republic "ahorita" actually means later, not right now. In other latin american countries, like Panama, "ahorita" does mean "right now".
    – Felipe Gavilán
    Mar 23, 2020 at 18:48
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Argentinean here.

We use "todito" with the same meaning as "todo" but in a friendlier tone. Sometimes we say "todo todito" to refer to absolute everything.

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I would say is rather the point 5 of your list, you could translate it as "every single day".

Any way it is also each and every of your points, "toditos los puntos".

As your points reflect, the nature of this use of todos is informal, because normatively speaking there is no such a thing as a diminutive for an indefinite pronoun or determinant, it is rather an idiomatic use, which is common in the sence that it is clearly understood by a Spanish native speaker

Therefore this is not the typical use of -ito, if you define typical as normative.

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    Thanks Andrés! So, if it's point 5, that is an unusual application of diminutive -ito. Because it seems sort of like an intensifier. Are there other examples of the -ito suffix which makes the word stronger, instead of smaller?
    – Sam
    Mar 21, 2020 at 17:18
  • @Sam It comes to my mind an ironic use, for instance to say to somebody that is lazy as hell... "eres un poco flojito", in here the use of the diminutive is normative because it is applied to an adjective, but the intension is not to diminish but rather the opossite.
    – Andrés Chandía
    Mar 21, 2020 at 17:27
  • very interesting.
    – Sam
    Mar 21, 2020 at 17:29
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    @Sam In English you have quite similar cases "you are a little lazy", saying it ironically it meas "you're such a lazy person", didn't it?
    – Andrés Chandía
    Mar 21, 2020 at 17:34
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    I've heard the"-ito" usted emphatically, in Chile and in Southern Bolivia, and in Santa Cruz área, I've heard their equivalent "-ingo": "¡Se lo comió todingo!" = "He/She ate it all up!"
    – Conrado
    Mar 21, 2020 at 21:03
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Yes, the same meaning as "todo" (all). As weird as it sounds I never thought about it until now but it really is just a nice way to say something. Like "feo" (ugly); if you don't want to sound completely messed up, someone could say "feito", although the concept doesn't change much: your still saying it, but not to sound like you're a jerk.

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