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Adjectives: the declension
Here you can find all the important information about adjective declension in the German language
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The declension of adjectives - what does it mean?
When adjectives come before a noun, they must agree with that noun. That's how you know they belong together. Therefore they have an ending that matches the noun .
To make sure that the ending agrees with the noun, it is declined : it changes depending on
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Case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive)
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Gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and
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Number (singular or plural)
Example:
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Der schöne Pulli ist nicht teuer!
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Ich kaufe den schönen Pulli.
Reminder:
Adjectives describe how something is:
cold, warm, high, low, new, old ….
How do I know which ending the adjective gets?
1. There is a definite article
The definite article shows the gender, case and number of the noun in the German language.
The form of the definite article (der, die, das, den, dem) is then the signal for the noun group.
If there is no definite article, there may either be
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an indefinite article (ein, eine, einen, einem, eines, einer) or
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no article = the "zero-article".
As there is no article with a signal, the signal must be on the adjective.
For example: "ein Tag"
"ein" can be masculin or neutral. We don't have a signal.
So: The signal is either at the article or at the adjective
2. There is no definite article
That means:
The declension of adjectives follows 3 different types:
Adjective declension after definite article
If there is a definite article before the adjective, it clearly determines the case, gender and number.
The adjective ends with:
almost always an -en
in five cases only an -e
You can see what these are in the following table:
Here you can find the signal on the article .
After some words the adjective gets the ending like after the definite article:
Adjectives after words like: dieser, welcher, derjenige, derselbe, jeder, jener, solcher
have the same pattern of declension.
Example:
Welcher kleine Junge hat gerufen? - Das war kein Junge, das war dieses kleine Mädchen!
Wir gehen an jedem sonnigen Tag spazieren.
Adjective declension after indefinite article
The indefinite article has no signal that definitely determines the case, gender and number of the noun.
That's why the signal is on the adjective.
Where the ending -e appeared five times in the table above, the adjective gets the ending of the definite article.
The other endings are -en again.
So: The adjective gets as an ending
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almost always an -en
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in five cases the ending of the definite article, ie -e
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the indefinite article has no plural form - the ending works like the 'zero article'
More words with the same ending as after an indefinite article:
Adjectives after
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words like: kein, irgendein
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and also the possessive articles mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, ihr, Ihr
have the same pattern of declination in the singular.
In the plural they receive the ending -en.
Examples:
Singular:
Mein kleiner Hund heißt Bello. Wie heißt deine süße Katze?
Wir bleiben an keinem sonnigen Tag zu Hause.
Plural:
Meine kleinen Hunde heißen Bello und Bella. Wie heißen deine süßen Katzen?
Wir bleiben an keinen sonnigen Tagen zu Hause.
Adjective declension without article
If there is no article , then the signal must be on the adjective .
The adjective then takes the ending of the definite article.
Exception : genitive singular masculine and neuter is -en.
Here the -s is only on the noun: So there is a signal here too.
In the table you can see: the signal is simply taken from the definite article .
More words with the same ending as after no article
Adjectives have the same pattern of declension after:
andere, einige, etliche, folgende, mehrere, verschiedene, viele, wenige
Example:
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Hast du noch andere gute Ideen?
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Ich brauche viele neue Kleider!
Overview of all forms:
Here you can find all forms at a glance!
with a definite article - with an indefinite article - without an article
Adjective declension: special forms
Adjectives ending on -el and -er loose the e: dunkel - ein dunkler Tag
teuer - ein teures Auto
hoch looses the c: hoch - ein hohes Haus
adjectives ending on -a get no ending: rosa - ein rosa Kleid
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The adjectives viel and wenig have NO ending in front of uncountable nouns:
viel Wasser, wenig Zeit
but: viele Tage, wenige Kinder
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There is no declension for the adjective mehr: Eva hat viele Blumen. Anna hat mehr Blumen.
Do I always have to decline adjectives?
Only adjectives that come before a noun are declined and given an ending.
If there are several adjectives before a noun, they get the same ending.
So:
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Summary
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When an adjective comes before a noun, it gets an ending.
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Which ending it gets depends on which article comes before the adjective: definite article, indefinite article or no article.
You might also like:
Adjectives - Comparison (schön, schöner, am schönsten)
Adjectives - Comparison with 'wie' or 'als'
Nouns: der, die oder das? the grammatical gender
Nomen: -chen and -lein make everything 'klein' (= small) - the diminutive
Prepositions: the alternating Prepositions
Practicing your pronunciation: tongue twisters
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