Italian diminutives

In English, we often add the endings -let, -ie, or -y, onto a word or name to “diminish” it — that is, to make it cuter, smaller, or more personal. For example, the words pig, eye, boot, and horse become piglet, eyelet, bootie, and horsey, and the names Kate and Mike become Katie and Mikey. Most languages have such mechanisms for diminutives, and in fact, most languages use them a lot more than we do in English.