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Could someone please clarify somethting about the following sentence, taken out of a work by Roald Dahl?

über die ein gewaltiger Wasserfall herabdonnerte, in gischtsprühende und wild wirbelnde Strudel hinein

Why does 'wild' not agree with Strudel? (It has no ending.) Is it because it is used as an adverb and not an adjective?

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  • Actually, you could write wilde, wirbelnde Strudel, that makes it an enumeration of adjectives.
    – Janka
    Jul 12, 2018 at 23:09

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Is it because it is used as an adverb and not an adjective?

Yes. It is used to describe “wirbelnde” which is the Partizip I of “wirbeln”. Adverbs are used elaborate on actions described by verbs, even if they are used in the Partizip I.

If you consider this example

die deshalb heute abreisende Frau

it becomes more obvious. “Deshalb” and “heute” are both adverbs and refer to “abreisende” (and cannot possibly refer to “Frau” as “die deshalb Frau” is grammatically impossible).

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