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What is Adjective Declension? (Adjektivdeklination)
Adjective Declension (Adjektivdeklination) means that you must match the endings of Adjectives to the appropriate case (Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive) to the Genus (Masculine, Feminine, Neutral, Plural) and to the Article preceding the Adjective.
It sounds harder than it is! In this lesson, I'll explain in a simple way how to always choose the right Adjective Ending.
When do we have to change adjective endings?
In German, when an adjective comes before the noun it describes, we have to change its ending. The technical term for this process is "declining" the adjective.
- "Der junge Mann lernt Deutsch." // "The young man is learning German." (The adjective "jung" comes before the noun "Mann" → Adjective Declension)
- But: "Der Mann ist jung." // "The man is young."
(There is no noun behind "jung" → No Adjective Declension)
What factors influence the Adjective ending?
The Adjective ending depends on the following factors:
Adjektivdeklination after Definite Articles
Remember:
The Article already clearly indicates the case. If the Article already indicates the case, the Adjective need not do so.
⇒ In the Nominative Singular and in the Accusative neutral and feminine, an „e“ is added.
⇒ In the accusative masculine as well as in the Plural, Dative and Genitive adjectives always get the ending „en“, no matter which article is in front of them.
Example:
- „Das rote Auto gehört dem reichen Mann.“
- „Hans sitzt auf dem alten Sofa.“
- „Das Haus steht neben dem großen Park.“
- „Das kleine Haus ist grau.“
Definite Article words
The Definite Articles also include the Article words:
- „diese“,
- „jede“,
- „welche“
- „solche” und
- „alle“.
If the Adjective stands behind one of these Articles, it also gets the ending, as with the Definite Article. Since these article words always already have the declined ending, the adjective can remain in the basic form with the „-e“ or the „-en“ ending.
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Adjektivdeklination after Indefinite Articles
The endings also apply to Possessive Articles (mein, dein,…) and the Negative Article (kein)
But these have a Plural:
Do you see the system behind it?
Exactly the same endings are given to the other forms (dein, sein, ihr,...) and also to the Negative Article (kein).
The colored marking shows from which part the case is concretely shown. In the plural, in the Dative and Genitive, the article already does that. So the adjective does not need to change its ending and stays with the „en“ ending. Because in the Nominative and Accusative also articles occur, which have no ending (ein, mein,...), the adjective must show the case there. So in the nominative and Accusative Singular, the ending of the Definite Article (der, die, das...) must be placed at the end of the Adjective.
Example:
- „Mein neues Auto steht in der Garage.“
- „Hans sitzt auf einer alten Kiste.“
- „Das Haus ist in keinem guten Zustand.“
- „Das ist ein schmales Bett.“
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Adjektivdeklination after the Zero Article
When a noun is used without an article, it is called a Zero Article. When there is no article before the Adjective, it is declined as follows:
Do you see the system behind it?
Without an Article before the Adjective, the adjective is forced to show the case. So you have to add the ending of the Definite Articles in the case to the end of the Adjective. The only exception is the Genitive masculine and neutral. Here the „s“ at the end of the noun already clearly shows that it is the genitive and the Adjective stays with its „-en“ ending.
Examples of Adjective Declension after the Zero Article:
- „Junge Frauen sind oft sehr hübsch.“
- „Ein Deutscher trinkt jedes Jahr 130 Liter kaltes Bier.“
- „Der Ring ist aus purem Gold.“
- „Dort stehen rote Autos.“
Adjektivdeklination after „viel“ , „manche“, „mehrere“, „einige“:
After these article words, the Adjective always gets the ending of the corresponding Definite Article, since these come before nouns that follow the rules of the Zero Article.
The rules described here ALWAYS work for these too. But sometimes there is another version which is also correct.
Special Feature
If an Adjective ends in „e“ no additional „e“ is added.
- „leise“ - „ein leises Kind“
(Wrong: ein leisees Kind)
Adjectives ending in „el“ drop the „e“ from „el“
- „sensibel“ - „ein sensibles Kind“
(Wrong: „ein sensibeles Kind“)
- „dunkel“ – „ein dunkler Wald“
(Wrong: „ein dunkeler Wald“)
Adjectives ending in „er“ drop the „e“ from „er“ if there is a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) in front of it.
- „teuer“ - „ein teures Auto“ (Wrong: „ein teueres Auto“)
- „sauer“ – „ein saurer Apfel“ (Wrong: „ein sauerer Apfel“)
BUT: „sauber“ – „ein sauberes Zimmer“ (Kein Vokal davor)
The Adjective „hoch“ losing the „c“ with an ending.
- „Der Turm ist hoch.“
- „Das ist ein hoher Turm.“
(Wrong: „Das ist ein hocher Turm.“)
Adjectives ending in „a“ and Adjectives from city names ending in „-er“ are not declined.
- „Das ist ein rosa Kleid.“
- „Die lila Bluse ist hässlich.“
- „Der Frankfurter Flughafen ist riesig.
Summary
In German, it's important to know what case every noun is in. If the article doesn't tell you what case it is, the adjective has to do that job.
In practice, that means the adjective gets the ending of the corresponding definite article for that gender and case (der, die, das,... ).
Exceptions:
- Genitive masculine and genitive neuter - Here we use the ending "-en," since the genitive "s" at the end of the noun makes it clear we are talking about the genitive case.
- After the words "viele" and "manche," the adjective always gets the ending of the corresponding definite article.
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Related Topics:
Entire lesson in German only: Adjektivdeklination
More lessons about Adjective Declension include are:
- Was ist die Adjektivdeklination? (What is Adjective?)
- Adjektivdeklination-Schritt fur Schritt Anleitung (Adjective Declension - Step by Step Guide)
- Steigerung der Adjektive (Comparison of Adjectives)
- Das Partizip als Adjektiv (The Participle as an Adjective)
- Adjektive und Partizipien als Nomen (Adjective and Participle as Noun)
- Deutsche Adjektivbildung (German Adjective Formation)
In order to use Adjective intensification, the Comparative and the Superlative correctly, you must also be familiar with Articles and the German cases:
- Was sind Artikel? (What is Article?)
- Bestimmter & Unbestimmter Artikel (Definite & Indefinite Article)
- Possessivartikel (Possessive Article)
- Negativartikel "kein" (Negative Article "kein")
- Nullartikel (Zero Article)
- Deutsche Fälle (German Cases)
You can find an overview of all topics under German Grammar.
Recommendation: Free lessons in Email Grammar course
