Adjectives formed from common nouns and the suffix -s express a property related to the meaning of the noun. This is possibly the commonst group of -s derivations, even though it is not productive. Examples are duiveldevil > duivelsdevilish, boerfarmer > boersrustic, coarse, schalkimp > schalksimpish, dooddeath > doodsdeathly, hemelheaven > hemelsheavenly, schoolschool > schoolsschool-like, regimented. Besides, there are forms with idiosyncratic meanings, such as kerkschurch-SUFFreligious, devout or haakshook-SUFForthogonal.

A similar type of adjective is formed from nouns denoting days, months or seasons: zondagse broekSunday trousers, maartse buiMarch shower, zomerse picknicksummer picnic. Depending on context, the meaning is 'typical for X' or 'meant for X'. Similar derivations related to timespans are forms ending in -lijks (discussed here).

This type of adjective appears in two variants: with proper names and with person nouns ending in -(i)aan. The meaning in both cases is '(as) by/from X, connected with X' or 'following (the school or teachings of) X'. Examples for the first type are de Lutherse bijbelthe Lutheran bible and de Wittgensteinse traditiethe Wittgensteinian tradition. It is possible to think of other adjectives as related to this type, e.g. protestantsprotestant, roomsbelonging to the Church of Rome, catholic and joodsJewish. Here, the bases are not proper names (or, in the case of rooms, the name belongs to a city rather than a person, however, the adjective does not mean 'from Rome'), but the semantic effect of the derivation is similar.

The second type is more common, examples are Wagneriaansin the style of Wagner, FreudiaansFreudian and franciscaansFranciscan. In many cases, the adjectives are more common than the corresponding base nouns ending in -iaan, which suggests that there may be a morphological schema for deriving adjectives with -(i)aans directly. The process is productive and can be extended easily to new person names.

This group is small, the most common examples are broedsbroody, loopsin heat, speelsplayful, steelsstealthy and waakswatchful. The meaning in all cases is 'having the tendency to X', which appears extended in idiosyncratic ways in broedsbreed-SUFFbroody and loopsrun-SUFFin heat. Synthetic compounds such as goedgeefsgenerous, goedlachscheery may also be analyzed as members of this group because they are partially verbal.

The suffix -s appears with still other types of input. Grootsgrand is derived from the adjective grootbig. This is an exceptional case. More common are adjectives formed from word sequences, especially consisting of preposition-noun-combinations, as in naoorlogspost-war, overzeesoverseas, naschoolsafter school and buitenaardsextraterrestial. Note that the two words do not necessarily form a word group: na schoolafter school but *na oorlog*after war. Other complex bases are numeral-noun (tweedaagstwo day), adjective-noun (platvloerscoarse), root-noun (midscheepsmidship) and phrases ( doordeweeksweekday, laag-bij-de-grondsmean, cruel, low). The semantics is transparent in most cases, but not easily generalizable. Common semantic domains are temporal, spatial and manner.

Adjectives with the suffix -s do not easily serve as input for further derivation. In some cases, nominalization is possible, especially for the deverbal cases, but only with the suffix -heid, see speelsheidplayfulness and goedlachsheidcheeriness, but also schoolsheidregimentation and aardsheidearthliness, worldliness.