German adjective endings¶

Before a noun, a German adjective gets an ending: der heiße Kaffee, ein heißer Kaffee, heißer Kaffee. The ending depends on three things: the case, the gender and the word before the adjective. This looks difficult, but one rule is behind it.

An adjective needs an ending only before a noun. After a verb, it has no ending: Der Kaffee ist heiß. After a verb, the form heißer means something different. It is the Komparativ (comparative): Der Kaffee ist heißer als der Tee. You can read more about it in Komparativ and Superlativ.

The main rule¶

The gender and the case must be shown once. Usually the article shows them. If the article already shows the gender and the case, the adjective gets a short ending, -e or -en. If the article doesn't show them, or there is no article, the adjective shows them itself. Then it gets the ending that the definite article would have: -er as in der, -es as in das, -em as in dem. This ending is called strong. The endings -e and -en are called weak. The explanations in the bot use these words too.

So there are three types of declension. The type depends on the word before the adjective:

The tables below show the adjective in four cases: Nominativ (nominative), Akkusativ (accusative), Dativ (dative) and Genitiv (genitive). What each case does is explained in German cases.

After der, die, das (schwache Deklination)¶

After the definite article, the adjective doesn't need to show the gender and the case again. So it gets only a weak ending, -e or -en:

Remember the five cells with -e: the singular Nominativ, and the neuter and feminine Akkusativ. All the other cells have -en. The adjective has the same endings after dieser, jeder and welcher: dieser heiße Kaffee, mit jedem frischen Brot.

After ein, kein and mein (gemischte Deklination)¶

In three cells, ein has no ending: the masculine Nominativ, the neuter Nominativ and the neuter Akkusativ. In these cells, ein doesn't show the gender. So the adjective gets the ending: -er as in der, -es as in das. In the other cells, the endings are the same as after der:

ein has no plural. So the Plural column uses kein. kein has the same endings as ein: kein heißer Kaffee, kein frisches Brot. The Genitiv form keiner roten Rosen is rare.

Possessive determiners also decline like ein: mein kleiner Bruder, unser neues Auto, mit seinem alten Freund. How to choose the possessive determiner itself is explained in Possessive determiners.

With no article (starke Deklination)¶

If there is no article, only the adjective shows the gender and the case. So it gets the ending of the definite article. An adjective with no article comes before uncountable nouns (Kaffee, Milch, Wasser) and before a plural with no article, for example after a number: zwei rote Rosen.

The adjective has the same endings after viele, einige, wenige and mehrere: viele neue Bücher. These words don't count as articles, so the adjective shows the gender and the case. After alle, the adjective has the same endings as after der: alle neuen Bücher.

A greeting in a letter also has no article: Lieber Max, Liebe Anna, Liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen. The greeting is in the Nominativ, so the ending is the same as in der and die.

Compare the endings with the article: der → heißer, dem → heißem, der (feminine Dativ) → warmer. In some cells, the strong ending is the same as the weak one: warme Milch and die warme Milch. The reason is simple: the article die has the same ending, -e, as the adjective.

When the stem changes¶

Some adjectives change their stem before an ending. hoch loses its c: ein hoher Berg. Adjectives that end in -el lose the e: dunkel → eine dunkle Nacht. The same happens with teuer and sauer: ein teures Auto, saure Milch. Without this change, the word has two unstressed syllables in a row, and it is hard to pronounce.

Three common mistakes¶

ein heißer Kaffee, not ein heiße Kaffee. After der, -e is enough for the adjective. ein has no ending, so the adjective gets -er. The same happens in the neuter: ein großes Haus, ein frisches Brot.

trotz starken Regens, not trotz starkes Regens. With no article, the adjective usually gets the ending of the article. But in the masculine and neuter Genitiv, the -s of the noun itself already shows the case: Regens, Wetters. So the adjective gets -en: wegen schlechten Wetters.

mit warmer Milch, not mit warmen Milch. After der, the feminine Dativ has -en: mit der warmen Milch. With no article, the adjective gets the ending of the article der: mit warmer Milch, trotz großer Kälte.

Exercises¶

You can find more exercises on this topic in the Telegram bot @ImmerWiederholenBot. The bot saves your progress and reminds you when it's time to review.

See also¶

• German cases: what each case does and how the article declines.
• Der, die or das: how to tell the gender of a noun. The ending of the adjective depends on the gender.
• Possessive determiners: mein, dein, sein, ihr and how they decline.
• Komparativ and Superlativ: how German adjectives form their degrees of comparison.