Learn Hardcore German: Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig.

Brot (bread) is neuter, so it takes the article das in the singular.
der is for most masculine nouns, die for most feminine nouns.
The plural of das Brot is die Brote (loaves / types of bread).

So:

Singular: das Brot – the bread
Plural: die Brote – the breads / loaves / types of bread

You can’t usually guess gender from the meaning in German; it’s just part of the word’s dictionary entry: das Brot (n.).

Why is heute in the middle of the sentence and not at the beginning like in English “Today the bread is very salty”?

German word order is more flexible than English, but it follows a key rule: the finite verb must be in second position in a main clause.

Your sentence is:

Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig.

Here, the “slots” look like this:

Das Brot (first position)
ist (second position – the verb must be here)
heute sehr salzig (the rest)

If you want to start with heute, you can, but the verb must still stay in second position:

Heute ist das Brot sehr salzig. – Today the bread is very salty.

Both are correct.

Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig. → neutral emphasis on the bread.
Heute ist das Brot sehr salzig. → emphasis on today (in contrast to other days).

Could I also say Das Brot ist heute sehr salzige?

No. In this sentence, salzig is a predicate adjective, and predicate adjectives in German have no ending.

Predicate adjective: after sein (to be), werden (to become), bleiben (to remain), etc.
- Das Brot ist salzig. – The bread is salty. (no ending)
Attributive adjective: directly before a noun, it does take an ending:
- das salzige Brot – the salty bread
- ein sehr salziges Brot – a very salty bread

So:

Correct: Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig.
Wrong: Das Brot ist heute sehr salzige.

Why is Brot capitalized but heute and salzig are not?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, regardless of where they appear in the sentence.

Brot is a noun → Brot (capitalized)
heute is an adverb → heute (lowercase)
salzig is an adjective → salzig (lowercase)

This rule is purely orthographic: if it’s a noun, it gets a capital letter. That’s why you will always see Brot, Tag, Mann, Frau, etc., with a capital letter, even in the middle of a sentence.

What tense is ist here, and how would I say “The bread was very salty today”?

ist is the present tense form of sein (to be), 3rd person singular:

Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig. – The bread is very salty today.

To talk about the past, you usually use war (simple past of sein):

Das Brot war heute sehr salzig. – The bread was very salty today.

You could also use the present perfect (Perfekt):

Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig gewesen. – also The bread was very salty today, but this sounds more formal / written and is less common in everyday speech for simple statements like this.

For most conversational purposes, war is what you need.

What case is das Brot in this sentence?

Das Brot is in the nominative case because it is the subject of the sentence.

Subject (nominative): Das Brot – the thing that “is salty”
Verb: ist
Predicate adjective: sehr salzig
Adverb of time: heute

The verb sein (“to be”) does not take an accusative object. It just links the subject to some description (here: salty), so das Brot remains nominative.

Why do we use sehr here and not something like zu or viel?

sehr, zu, and viel each express a different nuance:

sehr salzig – very salty
- Strong, but neutral. It does not necessarily mean “too much”.
zu salzig – too salty
- Explicitly too salty, i.e. more than desirable. This usually implies a complaint.
viel Salz – a lot of salt
- This talks about the amount of salt, not directly the taste as an adjective.

Examples:

Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig. – It’s very salty; maybe a bit much, maybe just strongly salty.
Das Brot ist heute zu salzig. – It’s too salty; that’s a problem.
Es ist viel Salz im Brot. – There is a lot of salt in the bread.

In your sentence, sehr simply intensifies the adjective salzig like English very.

Can I move sehr somewhere else, like Das Brot ist sehr heute salzig or Das Brot ist salzig sehr heute?

No, those word orders are not natural and sound wrong.

In German, sehr should come directly before the adjective or adverb it modifies:

Correct: Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig.
Also possible, but more marked: Das Brot ist sehr salzig heute. (emphasis shifted a bit to today)
Wrong: Das Brot ist sehr heute salzig.
Wrong: Das Brot ist salzig sehr heute.

So keep sehr immediately in front of salzig.

What is the difference between heute and heutzutage? Could I say Das Brot ist heutzutage sehr salzig?

heute and heutzutage are related but not interchangeable:

heute = today, this specific day.
- Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig. – The bread is very salty today (this day).
heutzutage = nowadays, in general these days / in our era.
- Das Brot ist heutzutage sehr salzig. – Bread is very salty nowadays (in general, these days).

So yes, Das Brot ist heutzutage sehr salzig. is grammatically correct, but the meaning changes:

heute: talking about this particular day’s bread batch.
heutzutage: making a general comment about modern bread in general.

Could I say Das Brot schmeckt heute sehr salzig instead of Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say both, and both are common, but the focus is slightly different.

Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig.
- Describes a state or quality: The bread is (in its nature/condition) very salty today.
Das Brot schmeckt heute sehr salzig.
- Uses the verb schmecken (to taste) and focuses more on the subjective taste experience:
  The bread tastes very salty today.

In everyday speech:

ist can sound a bit more objective: maybe the baker used more salt.
schmeckt emphasizes what you notice when you eat it.

Both are completely natural and often interchangeable in context.

Is Brot always uncountable in German like “bread” often is in English?

No. Brot is mainly a mass noun, but German also uses it in a countable way more freely than English.

You can say:

Ich kaufe ein Brot. – I’m buying a loaf of bread.
Wir brauchen zwei Brote. – We need two loaves (or two types) of bread.

So:

As a mass:
- Brot – bread in general
- Ich esse gern Brot. – I like eating bread.
As countable (usually meaning loaves or kinds):
- ein Brot, zwei Brote

In your sentence, Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig., it likely refers to “the bread (we have / this loaf / this batch)” without specifying count.

How is salzig formed from Salz, and are there other adjectives like this?

salzig is formed from the noun Salz (salt) plus the adjective-forming suffix -ig.

Pattern:

Salz → salzig – salty
Staub (dust) → staubig – dusty
Öl (oil) → ölig – oily
Saft (juice) → saftig – juicy
Schmutz (dirt) → schmutzig – dirty

This -ig suffix is very common for creating adjectives meaning “full of / having the quality of X”. In the predicate position (after sein), they appear without endings, as in your sentence:

Das Brot ist heute sehr salzig. ✅