Word
Lo miro de cerquita y brilla sospechosamente.
Meaning
I look at it very closely and it shines suspiciously.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Lo miro de cerquita y brilla sospechosamente.
de
from / of
y
and
mirar
to look at / to watch
cerca
close / near
Questions & Answers about Lo miro de cerquita y brilla sospechosamente.
Why is the diminutive used on the adverb cerca to make cerquita?
In Latin American Spanish, adding a diminutive suffix to an adverb doesn't make it "smaller." Instead, it acts as an intensifier to express a maximum degree. Cerquita means very close or right up close, making it more emphatic and conversational than just saying muy cerca.
Could I use lexical reduplication here, like cerca cerca, to mean the same thing?
Yes! In spoken Latin American Spanish, repeating the word (cerca cerca) is a prototypical way to express maximum degree, meaning "extremely close." The diminutive in this sentence (cerquita) achieves a very similar intensifying effect. You could even combine them and say cerquita cerquita for absolute maximum emphasis.
Why do we need the preposition de in de cerquita?
The standard Spanish phrase for "to look closely" at something is mirar de cerca. Because the set phrase requires the preposition de, it stays in place even when we intensify the adverb to cerquita.