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Thank you, I had the German word in mind and was not able to find the English one in my foggy brain.

Same for me. My brain broke down somewhat, but luckily I am retired. I often ask AI like "What's the word for a smaller variant of something?", super helpful.

Um. The German word is Diminutiv.

Were you thinking of „Verkleinerungsform“? Do people still use those Germanized terms? It feels a little old-fashioned to me, like saying „besitzanzeigendes Fürwort“ instead of Possessivpronomen.

> Do people still use those Germanized terms?

In a way? I always found it more sensible to use German words like "Namenwort" instead of "Nomen" to express German grammar, instead of using latin terms. After all Latin is a language that comes from a completely different language family to start with and is not used at all in Germany except when wanting to pretend you're fancy (law, medicine, grammar).

I had the word "Verniedlichung" in mind, of course this is also not the right term, but as I been living outside of France for the past 25 years, switching daily between French, German and English, I am sometimes "stuck" and can't get the right word out. And this in whatever language I am thinking at the moment.

I now accept that I am losing my French while not being really fluent in any other language.

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