Adjectives are "describing words": they describe certain features of a person, a thing or a situation, such as colour, size or character traits.

Adjectives can either come right before the noun they describe or separate from it. When they come right before the noun, the adjectival ending changes.

If adjective is after the word that it describes, it stays as it is.

In German, adjectives before noun are conjugated (or rather, declined) based on the gender, case, and number of the noun they describe, as well as whether they follow a definite article (der, die, das), an indefinite article (ein, eine), or no article at all. There are three main types of adjective declension:

Strong Declension (No article):

Used when no article precedes the adjective (e.g., "schönes Wetter"). Adjectives took ending of definite articles

Weak Declension (With definite article):

Occurs after

• definite article (der, die, das)
• dieser, jener, jeder, solcher, welcher

Mixed Declension (With indefinite article)

Occurs after words where gender coud not be defined

• indefinite article (ein/eine)
• negative article (kein/keine)
• mein/meine

Nominative case

The ending of adjective depends on whether the noun is accompanied by a definite or indefinite article.

For nominative nouns with definite articles, we add:

• "-e" to adjectives describing singular nouns
• "-en" to adjectives describing plural nouns

For nouns with indefinite articles we add:

• "-er" to adjectives describing masculine nouns
• "-es" to adjectives describing neuter nouns
• "-e" to adjectives describing feminine nouns

If a noun is accompanied by a possessive adjective (like "mein" or "dein"), we use the same adjectival endings we just learned for indefinite articles.

For adjectives describing plural nouns with possessive adjectives, we add the ending "-en".

We always need a signalto describe the gender of the noun. If that signal is not on the article, it needs to be on the adjective.

Accusative case

The direct object of a sentence is in the accusative case.

In that case, only the masculine endings change from the nominative endings

For accusative nouns with definite articles, we add:

• "-en" to adjectives describing singular masculine nouns
• "-e" to adjectives describing singular feminine and neutral nouns
• "-en" to adjectives describing plural nouns

For accusative nouns with indefinite articles or possessive adjectives, we add:

• "-en" to adjectives describing masculine nouns
• "-e" to adjectives describing feminine nouns
• "-es" to adjectives describing neuter nouns

Dative Case

The indirect object of a sentence is usually in the dative case.

For adjectives in the dative case, the endings are quite easy to remember: we add "-en" to all adjectives. It doesn't matter if they describe a masculine, feminine or neuter noun, or whether they go with definite or indefinite articles.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives enable us to express who something or someone belongs to. Their form changes depending on the gender and number of the noun they describe.

The singular possessive adjectives (masculine/feminine) are:

Comparative adjectives

To compare things with each other, we use adjective forms called "Komparative" (comparatives) and "Superlative" (superlatives). They're really useful if you want to highlight a particular difference between two or more things.

Komparativ

We form the "Komparativ" by adding the ending "-er" to an adjective. Sometimes we also replace a vowel with an Umlaut (ä,ö,ü).

When a comparative stands right before the noun it describes, we have to add the correct adjectival ending so that it matches the noun in gender, number and case.

When we compare two things, we often add the word "als" (than) after the comparative.

Superlativ

We use this form to say that something or someone has the most of an attribute in comparison to others.

We can form the "Superlativ" in two ways:

1) We add the ending "-(e)sten" to the basic form of an adjective and put "am" before it.

2) When we use a superlative right before the noun it describes, we add the ending "-(e)ste" and the regular adjectival endings to the basic adjective form. We use it with a definite article (der, die, das).

Irregular adjectives

Some of the most frequent comparatives are irregular.

Created: 26 Sept 2022

Last Update: 27 Sept 2024