geringfügige

Geringfügige is the inflected form of the German adjective geringfügig, meaning small, minor or negligible. It describes things with only a small degree or amount and is used across everyday language as well as legal and economic contexts. As an adjective, geringfügig declines according to gender, number, and case. For example: die geringfügige Änderung (feminine singular nominative), der geringfügige Fehler (masculine singular), das geringfügige Problem (neuter singular), die geringfügigen Änderungen (plural).

In practice, the form geringfügige often appears in attributive position before nouns. It is common in phrases such as geringfügige Veränderungen, geringfügige Kosten or die geringfügige Regelung, where it signals that the described matter is minor or below a relevant threshold. The adverbial use of geringfügig is also standard, as in Die Kosten sind geringfügig gestiegen, meaning that costs rose only slightly.

A prominent technical usage is geringfügige Beschäftigung, a term in German labor law referring to marginal employment with earnings not exceeding a defined monthly threshold. This status is associated with reduced social security contributions for both employer and employee. Historically, the threshold was 450 euros per month; since 2023 it has been raised to 520 euros per month, shaping eligibility for the Minijob designation and related regulatory exemptions.

Beyond law and economics, geringfügig is used to denote minor importance or impact in scientific, political, and everyday language. It functions as part of standard declension patterns and remains a common, neutral descriptor for small-scale phenomena.