Obligation as an adjective (zu + present participle)

When university assignments pile up, you need efficient ways to talk about your workload. Just as you can use sein + zu + infinitive to say what "is to be done" (e.g., Das Skript ist zu lesen), German allows you to condense this obligation into an adjective placed directly in front of the noun.

The Gerundivum (Attributive Passive Obligation)

To describe a noun as "needing to be done," you can form a special adjective called the Gerundivum. It has a passive meaning, translating to "the [noun] that is to be [verbed]."

To form it, take the present participle of the verb (the infinitive plus -d, like lesend), place zu in front of it, and add the appropriate adjective ending (lesen becomes zu lesend-).

Because this form acts exactly like a normal adjective, it takes standard adjective endings based on gender, case, and number.

Here is an example showing the gerundivum taking a plural genitive ending (-en):

Separable Verbs and Modifiers

If the verb has a separable prefix (like vorbereiten), the zu gets sandwiched between the prefix and the verb root. The entire gerundivum is written as a single word (vorzubereitend-).

If the verb is modified by a separate word—such as an adverb describing how it should be done, or a standalone phrase like auswendig (by heart)—that modifier stays a separate word right in front of the gerundivum.