Words like the following are called adjectives.
alt, heftig, freundlich, stolz, deutsch, weiblich, schön, gelb, wichtig, erfolgreich, faul, müde, kreativ
Adjectives are parts of speech that attribute a feature, a characteristic, a quality etc. to the noun they qualify.
An adjective can be used as:
| Examples | |
| attribute to a noun | Das Hotel hat sehr nettes Personal. |
| attribute to an adjective | Das ist eine typisch deutsche Spezialität. |
| attribute to an adverb | Er sitzt weit oben. |
| predicative expression | Die Wohnung ist geräumig. |
| adverbial | Meine Schwester singt sehr schön. |
Adjectives are only inflected when they qualify a noun. Otherwise, they are not inflected.
| Examples | |
| attribute to a noun | nettes Personal, hübsche Frau, leckere Kekse, erfahrener Pilot, idyllische Landschaft |
Most adjectives form degrees of comparison.
| Examples | |
| degrees of comparison | schnell, schneller, am schnellsten - interessant, interessanter, am interessantesten |
Many adjectives are complemented by other words, most commonly simple objects in various cases or prepositional objects, in order to broaden their meaning.
| Examples | |
| complements | jemandem böse sein, jemandem etwas schuldig sein, auf etwas/jemanden angewiesen sein |
Finally, numeral adjectives constitute a special category.
| Examples | |
| numeral adjectives | acht, achte, achtel, achtfach, achterlei |