German doesn't have to borrow a separate word for every adjective the way English often does. Instead it grows adjectives out of nouns, verbs, and other adjectives using a small set of highly productive suffixes. Once you know what each suffix does, you can read — and often build — adjectives you have never seen before. This page covers the seven workhorses: -lich, -ig, -bar, -los, -isch, -voll, and -sam, plus the negating prefix un- that combines with several of them.
Why suffixes matter more in German
In English, the relationship between sun and sunny, or use and useful, is signaled by a suffix too (-y, -ful). But English also has thousands of adjectives with no morphological link to their root (solar for sun, aquatic for water). German leans far harder on transparent suffixation: from die Sonne (sun) you get sonnig (sunny), from der Sinn (sense) you get sinnvoll (sensible) and sinnlos (senseless), from essen (to eat) you get essbar (edible). The root stays visible, so the meaning stays guessable.
-lich and -ig: "characteristic of" vs "having the quality of"
These two are the most common and the most confusing, because they overlap in meaning and there is no reliable rule for which root takes which. You simply have to learn each word. That said, there are tendencies.
-lich tends to mean "characteristic of, pertaining to, in the manner of." It frequently triggers an umlaut and often forms adjectives from nouns of time or quality: der Tag → täglich (daily), die Woche → wöchentlich (weekly), der Freund → freundlich (friendly), das Glück → glücklich (happy/lucky). With colour roots it softens the meaning to "-ish": rot → rötlich (reddish), blau → bläulich (bluish).
Ich gehe nicht jeden Tag joggen, aber fast täglich.
I don't go jogging every day, but almost daily.
Die Bedienung war total freundlich, das hat mir echt gutgetan.
The service was really friendly — that genuinely did me good.
-ig tends to mean "having, full of, characterized by," and it usually forms adjectives from nouns and adverbs without changing register: die Sonne → sonnig (sunny), der Hunger → hungrig (hungry), die Ruhe → ruhig (calm/quiet), der Durst → durstig (thirsty).
Mach mal das Fenster zu, draußen ist es ziemlich windig.
Close the window, would you — it's pretty windy outside.
Sei bitte ruhig, das Baby schläft gerade.
Please be quiet, the baby is sleeping right now.
The hard truth: why täglich takes -lich but sonnig takes -ig is largely historical accident. There is no shortcut. Learn the adjective as a unit, the way you learn that English says friendly but sunny, not friendy and sunly.
-bar: the precise German "-able/-ible"
If you remember one thing from this page, make it this: -bar is the exact German equivalent of English -able/-ible, and it is fully productive. It attaches to verb stems and means "able to be V-ed."
| Verb |
| Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| essen (to eat) | essbar | edible (eat-able) |
| lesen (to read) | lesbar | readable, legible |
| machen (to do/make) | machbar | doable, feasible |
| bezahlen (to pay) | bezahlbar | affordable (pay-able) |
| verzichten (to do without) | verzichtbar | dispensable |
| schlagen (to beat) | schlagbar | beatable |
Because -bar carries a passive "can be done" meaning, it pairs naturally with un- for negation, giving you "un-X-able" in one move: unbezahlbar (unaffordable, also "priceless"), unverzichtbar (indispensable), unschlagbar (unbeatable), unlesbar (illegible). This is a genuinely productive tool — when you need to say "X-able" or "un-X-able" and don't know the word, building it with -bar is very often correct and always understood.
Die Mieten hier sind für Studenten kaum noch bezahlbar.
The rents here are barely affordable for students anymore.
Deine Hilfe war für uns unbezahlbar.
Your help was priceless to us.
Seine Handschrift ist leider völlig unlesbar.
His handwriting is unfortunately completely illegible.
-los: "-less / without"
-los is the clean equivalent of English -less. It attaches to nouns and means "without that thing." It is transparent and productive: die Arbeit → arbeitslos (unemployed), die Hilfe → hilflos (helpless), der Sinn → sinnlos (senseless/pointless), die Hoffnung → hoffnungslos (hopeless), die Kosten → kostenlos (free of charge).
Er ist seit einem halben Jahr arbeitslos und sucht verzweifelt.
He's been unemployed for six months and is searching desperately.
Das Konzert war kostenlos, deshalb war es so voll.
The concert was free, that's why it was so crowded.
Note that -los is itself a negating suffix, so it competes with the prefix un- (covered on the affixal-negation page). German often has both options with a meaning split: arbeitslos = jobless, but unarbeitsam would be an odd word; sinnlos = pointless, while unsinnig = nonsensical. When in doubt, -los means "lacking the noun," un- means "not the adjective."
-isch: "pertaining to," nationalities, and the pejorative trap
-isch forms adjectives meaning "pertaining to, in the manner of." It does three jobs:
- Nationality and language adjectives (always lowercase in German): englisch (English), spanisch (Spanish), italienisch (Italian), städtisch (urban, from die Stadt).
- Neutral "characterized by" adjectives: neidisch (envious, from der Neid).
- A frequent pejorative colouring, which is the trap for English speakers. The classic minimal pair:
| Form | Meaning | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| kindisch | childish (immature) | negative |
| kindlich | childlike (innocent, age-appropriate) | neutral/positive |
This -isch vs -lich contrast is the same root (das Kind) split into a critical word and a tender one. The pattern recurs: weibisch (effeminate, derogatory) vs weiblich (female/feminine, neutral).
Sei nicht so kindisch, wir sind keine zehn mehr.
Don't be so childish — we're not ten years old anymore.
Sie hat eine schöne, kindliche Neugier behalten.
She has kept a lovely, childlike curiosity.
Sprichst du Spanisch? — Nur ein bisschen, italienisch kann ich besser.
Do you speak Spanish? — Only a little, I'm better at Italian.
-voll, -sam, and -haft: the smaller players
-voll = English -ful, "full of": wertvoll (valuable, from der Wert = value), sinnvoll (meaningful/sensible), liebevoll (loving), respektvoll (respectful). It is the direct opposite of -los in many pairs: sinnvoll vs sinnlos, wertvoll vs wertlos.
Das war ein wertvoller Hinweis, danke dir.
That was a valuable tip, thank you.
-sam means "tending to, disposed to" and is less productive today: sparsam (thrifty, from sparen = to save), langsam (slow), aufmerksam (attentive), gemeinsam (joint/together).
Mein Opa war sein Leben lang sehr sparsam.
My grandpa was very thrifty his whole life.
-haft means "having the nature/appearance of": fehlerhaft (faulty, from der Fehler), vorbildhaft (exemplary), krankhaft (pathological, morbidly).
How these adjectives behave once formed
Every suffix on this page produces an ordinary adjective, so it declines like any other when it sits before a noun (see the adjective-declension pages): ein freundlicher Mann, eine sonnige Woche, der essbare Pilz → die essbaren Pilze. As a predicate after sein/werden/bleiben it stays uninflected: Der Mann ist freundlich. All these suffixes are written lowercase, because they form adjectives, not nouns — even the nationality ones (spanisch, not Spanisch, except when nominalized as a language name).
Common Mistakes
❌ Ich finde diese Idee sehr useful.
Incorrect — using the English word instead of building the adjective.
✅ Ich finde diese Idee sehr sinnvoll.
I find this idea very useful/sensible.
English speakers reach for a Latinate adjective; German prefers to build one with a suffix. When you want "X-able," try the -bar move first.
❌ Mein Bruder ist so kindlich, er streitet wegen jeder Kleinigkeit.
Incorrect — kindlich (childlike) where the negative kindisch is meant.
✅ Mein Bruder ist so kindisch, er streitet wegen jeder Kleinigkeit.
My brother is so childish — he argues over every little thing.
The -isch/-lich pair is not interchangeable. -isch is the critical, "immature" one; -lich is the affectionate "innocent" one.
❌ Das Wasser hier ist nicht trinkbar wegen die Bakterien.
Incorrect — the adjective is right, but the case after wegen is wrong.
✅ Das Wasser hier ist nicht trinkbar wegen der Bakterien.
The water here isn't drinkable because of the bacteria.
The -bar adjective (trinkbar = drinkable) is built correctly; this reminds you that the suffixed adjective still lives inside normal grammar.
❌ Sie ist seit einem Jahr arbeitlos.
Incorrect — missing the -s- linking element before -los.
✅ Sie ist seit einem Jahr arbeitslos.
She's been unemployed for a year.
Some bases keep a connecting sound: Arbeit + -s- + los → arbeitslos, just as in compound nouns. Learn the surface form.
❌ Er spricht Englisch sehr gut, aber er ist nicht Englisch.
Mixing the capitalized language noun with the lowercase nationality adjective.
✅ Er spricht sehr gut Englisch, aber er ist nicht Engländer.
He speaks English very well, but he isn't English.
As an adjective, nationality words are lowercase (englisch); the language name and the person noun are capitalized (Englisch, Engländer).
Key Takeaways
- -lich and -ig both make "having the quality of" adjectives; there is no rule for which root takes which, so memorize each.
- -bar is the precise German -able/-ible, attaches to verb stems, and combines with un- for "un-X-able" — a productive tool.
- -los = -less (without the noun); -voll = -ful (full of); they form many opposite pairs (sinnlos/sinnvoll).
- -isch covers nationalities (lowercase) and is often pejorative — watch the kindisch (childish) vs kindlich (childlike) split.
- All these suffixes form lowercase adjectives that decline normally before a noun.
Now practice German
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Word Formation: OverviewB1 — The three engines that build German's huge vocabulary from a small root stock — compounding, derivation, and conversion — and why long words are decodable, not unlearnable.
- Noun-Forming Suffixes (-ung, -heit, -keit, -schaft)B1 — The productive suffixes that build German nouns — and the gold-mine fact that each one carries a fixed gender, so the ending predicts both meaning and der/die/das.
- Negation by Prefix and Suffix (un-, -los, nicht-)B2 — German negates whole words with the prefix un-, the suffix -los, and Nicht- on nouns — a productive word-level negation system that goes far beyond English -less and un-.
- German Adjectives: An OverviewA1 — The fundamental split between uninflected predicate adjectives and inflected attributive adjectives, and how it sets up the three declension patterns.
- Adjectives Used as NounsB1 — Nominalized adjectives in German — der Alte, ein Deutscher, das Gute — get capitalized but keep their adjective endings, so they decline by article type.
- Predicting Gender from Word EndingsA2 — The high-reliability suffix rules that let you predict whether a German noun is der, die, or das from how it ends.