Adjective Declension with Definite Articles

Adjectives preceding a noun must be declined, meaning they receive an ending.

The ending of the adjective depends on the following factors:

Gender
Case
Article preceding the adjective

This lesson is divided into five sub-lessons.

Adjective Endings with Definite Articles

	Nominative	Accusative	Dative	Genitive
Masculine	der schöne Mann	den schönen Mann	dem schönen Mann	des schönen Mannes
Feminine	die schöne Frau	die schöne Frau	der schönen Frau	der schönen Frau
Neuter	das schöne Haus	das schöne Haus	dem schönen Haus	des schönen Hauses
Plural	die schönen Männer	die schönen Männer	den schönen Männern	der schönen Männer

Tip:

The article already indicates the case clearly. If the article indicates the case, the adjective does not need to.

In the nominative singular and accusative singular for neuter and feminine genders, an „e“ is appended to the adjective. In the accusative singular for masculine gender, as well as in the plural, dative, and genitive cases, adjectives, regardless of the preceding article, always take the ending „en“.

Examples:

„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

Definite article words also include words like: „diese“, „jede“, „welche“, „solche“ and „alle“.

When an adjective follows one of these article words, it also takes the ending as with a definite article.

Since these article words already have the declined ending, the adjective can remain in its base form with the „-e“ or „-en“ ending.

Summary

In the accusative singular for masculine and in the plural, dative, and genitive cases, the adjective takes the ending „en“
Otherwise, it takes the ending „e“
Words like „diese“, „jede“, „alle“ and „welche“ use the same ending – they are also definite articles or what are known as article words.

You can also have Jan explain the grammar to you in a video lesson:

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Grammar training – Adjective Declension

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