When working in a master perfumer's workshop, you aren't just dealing with one type of vanilla or a single aroma. You're dealing with all sorts of rare extracts! To describe this variety, German uses the suffix -erlei.
Invariant adjectives of variety
By adding the suffix -erlei to indefinite pronouns (like all or viel) or numbers, you create an adjective that means "kinds of" or "sorts of".
These adjectives are completely invariant—they never change their endings, regardless of the noun's gender, case, or number.
Let's start with the indefinite pronouns allerlei (all sorts of) and vielerlei (many kinds of):
| The master blends all sorts of aromas and essences. | Der Meister mischt allerlei Aromen und Essenzen. |
| Before we begin, we fetch all sorts of little bottles. | Ehe wir anfangen, holen wir allerlei Fläschchen. |
| The scent of the new essence shows many kinds of nuances. | Der Duft der neuen Essenz zeigt vielerlei Nuancen. |
Counting varieties
When a recipe calls for specific blends, you can attach -erlei directly to numbers. For example, adding it to zwei (two) or drei (three) gives you zweierlei (two kinds of) and dreierlei (three kinds of).
| I am adding two kinds of vanilla and a little bit of sandalwood. | Ich füge zweierlei Vanille und ein bisschen Sandelholz hinzu. |
| The recipe requires three kinds of nuances of vanilla. | Das Rezept verlangt dreierlei Nuancen von Vanille. |
Absolutely none
To express that a quality or ingredient is completely absent, use keinerlei. Built from kein, this translates to "no kind of" or "none whatsoever".
| Anna's perfume has no aroma whatsoever. | Annas Parfüm hat keinerlei Aroma. |
| The extract offers no fruity nuances whatsoever. | Der Extrakt bietet keinerlei fruchtige Nuancen. |