Let’s start with some examples of endearing terms:
Love, sweetie, honey, darling, sweet heart, babe, baby……………..
there are many more, but let’s see how and when to use some of them. For instance the endearing term DEAR
You use this term to address a formal letter, but now more and more we tend to use hello, hi, more what I would call younger expressions. Dear sounds like you are referring to an older person. ‘How are you dear’ is an example of how you would refer to an older person.
Remember that when you use such endearing terms, you must be careful of the tone you are using, be careful, you might sound condescending. It might sound ok in one language, but not in an other.
in England endearing terms like HONEY, SWEETIE or BABY are used when referring to someone you really know well, a boy friend or girl friend. You wouldn’t use this term to a work colleague or someone you have just met.
Diminutive is when you add ‘ee’ sound, spelled ie or y added to the end of someone’s name.
For example:
kate becomes Katie
Kim becomes Kimmie
and so on.
you would only use diminutives with people you know well and someone that excepts such a change to their name. In England diminutives are accepted most of the time as this is an endearing way to call someone you know.
You must remember that endearing terms albeit acceptable in some countries are not always nice to use, especially if the person you use the term on doesn’t like it. For instance, I was at a party only last week and a person came up to another person and called the person sweetie, the reply was, I am not your sweetie. Not everyone likes these terms used on them, so be extra careful when using them.
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