- los ‘without’
kinderlos ‘childless’, ideenlos ‘without ideas’, rücksichtslos
‘thoughtless/inconsiderate’- frei ‘free from’
phosphatfrei ‘phosphate-free’, koffeinfrei ‘caffeine-free’, ideologiefrei
‘free from ideology’(b) The present participle (see 33.1) and the past participle of all verbs can be used
adjectivally. Here are some examples:Past participle:geeignet ‘suitable’, gefragt ‘popular (often asked for)’, gelernt ‘trained/
qualified’, erfahren ‘experienced’Present participle:führend ‘leading’, fragend ‘questioning’, stehend ‘standing’,
durchgehend ‘continuous/non-stop’55.2 Using prefixes
There are many prefixes which alter or intensify the meaning of an adjective, including
un- ‘not’, ur- ‘original/very old’; and several which intensify the meaning, such as
hoch- ‘very’ and höchst-, riesen-, super- ‘extremely’:uninteressant ‘uninteresting’ (see 47.5)
uralt ‘ancient’
hochinteressant ‘extremely interesting’
höchstwahrscheinlich ‘most probably’
riesengroß ‘enormous’
superfit ‘super fit’56 Forming adverbs
56.1 Most adjectives can be used as adverbs without a change in their form (see 50.2). For
patterns forming distinct adverbs, see 50.3.
56.2 Where an adjective form exists alongside an adverbial form ending in -erweise, the
adverb is almost always a sentence adverb, i.e. it relates to the sentence as a whole
rather than to a specific word:
Das hat er glücklicherweise nicht erfahren.
Fortunately, he didn’t find that out.56.3 Note that the adverbial form ending in -weise is occasionally used adjectivally, with
the full range of adjective endings (see 44–46):
Das stimmt teilweise.
That is partly true.56
Forming adverbs