German need an ending if they appear in front of the they modify, but not if it occurs after a . For example:
Der bunte Papagei sitzt auf einem grünen Baum.
The colorful parrot is sitting on a green tree.
Der Papagei ist bunt.
The parrot is colorful.
To find the correct ending, though, we need to look at both the noun itself and the article it is used with. The adjective ending will always depend on the case, number, and gender of the noun, but the set of endings you choose from depend on whether the noun has a definite article (“the”), an indefinite article (“an”), or no article.
Does it sound complicated? It might be at first, but you’ll get the hang of it with practice! Luckily there are a lot of helpful patterns to follow. Keep reading to find out and let’s explore the colorful world of adjectives and adjective endings!
The German language makes a big distinction between attributive adjectives (which take endings) and predicate adjectives (which do not).
Attributive adjectives appear directly before the noun they modify. These take endings.
Der rote Schnabel kontrastiert mit den grünen Flügeln.
The red beak contrasts with the green wings.
Predicate adjectives appear elsewhere, usually after a like sein(to be). These do not require endings.
Die Flügel sind grün und der Schnabel ist rot.
The wings are green and the beak is red.
Since this is an article about adjective endings, we will focus on attributive adjectives in this post. Let’s have a closer look!
In German, we distinguish two main groups of adjective endings: weak adjective endings and strong adjective endings. The broad distinction is:
We use strong endings for nouns that do not follow a .
We use weak endings for nouns that follow an article or another determiner.
There are a few restricted cases where we might use a strong adjective ending for an after an indefinite article or some other determiner. We do this to help resolve ambiguities that arise when you use these determiners: the strong adjective ending “slides in” to save the day!
Let’s have a look at exactly what these endings are, and when you’ll need to remember exceptions.
In German, there are only two possible weak adjective endings: -e and -en.
You will only use these two endings for adjectives that are preceded by a definite article (“the”) and you will mostly use these endings for other nouns with an indefinite article.
However, three endings are subject to change, depending on the article you use:
nominative singular masculine
nominative singular neuter
accusative singular neuter
Let’s have a look at the patterns!
The table below shows the “pure” weak endings for German adjectives: the endings you’ll use for an adjective that follows a definite article.
Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | der bunte Papagei | die rote Blume | das grüne Blatt | die bunten Papageien |
Accusative | den bunten Papagei | die rote Blume | das grüne Blatt | die bunten Papageien |
Dative | dem bunten Papagei | der roten Blume | dem grünen Blatt | den bunten Papageien |
Genitive | des bunten Papageis | der roten Blume | des grünen Blattes | der bunten Papageien |
English | the colorful parrot | the red flower | the green leaf | the colorful parrots |
Luckily, we can summarize this table with a couple of quick and easy rules!
Nominative singular → use -e
Accusative singular, feminine or neuter → use -e
Everywhere else → use -en
That’s not so hard!
You can use this exact ending pattern for adjectives that follow these other types of words as well:
demonstrative adjectives, like diese(this)
interrogative adjectives, like welche(which)
indefinite adjectives, like manche(some)
For example:
Ist dieser große, weiße Vogel ein Pelikan?
Is the large, white bird a pelican?
Welchen weißen Vogel meinst du?
Which white bird do you mean?
The table below illustrates that, after an indefinite article, you mostly use the same endings that you do after a definite article, but there are a three exceptional forms (highlighted in red):
Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | ein bunter Papagei | eine rote Blume | ein grünes Blatt | keine bunten Papageien |
Accusative | einen bunten Papagei | eine rote Blume | ein grünes Blatt | keine bunten Papageien |
Dative | einem bunten Papagei | einer roten Blume | einem grünen Blatt | keinen bunten Papageien |
Genitive | eines bunten Papageis | einer roten Blume | eines grünen Blattes | keiner bunten Papageien |
English | a colorful parrot | a red flower | a green leaf | no colorful parrots |
Notice that the table is mostly the same! Any adjective that would end in -en after a definite article still ends with -en after an indefinite article. The only difference is that a few of the -e adjectives have acquired new endings: -es and -er.
Why? Because in these cases, the combination of the article + noun alone is ambiguous! Ein is used for both a masculine and neuter singular nouns, and so the adjective “slides in” with a strong ending to save the day and make the gender and case clear.
You’ll also use these “modified” weak endings after the following types of determiners, which have the same ending patterns as indefinite articles:
possessive adjectives, like mein(my) or dein(your)
indefinite negation words, like kein(no)
For example:
Das ist kein weißer Vogel, er ist grau.
That’s not a white bird, it is grey.
In German, we use strong endings for “unpreceded adjectives,” or those that do not have an article or another similar word before them.
Luckily, the strong endings in German are easy to learn because, with just one exception, they are exactly the same as the endings used on definite articles!
Definite Article | Adjective Ending |
|---|---|
der | -er |
die | -e |
das | -es |
den | -en |
dem | -em |
des | -en |
Why are these so similar? Because in the absence of an article, the adjective “takes over” the article’s job! Compare:
Mit dem Schnabel und den Flügeln ist dieser Papagei besonders schön.
With that beak and those wings this parrot is especially pretty.
Mit rotem Schnabel und grünen Flügeln ist dieser Papagei besonders schön.
With (a) red beak and green wings this parrot is especially pretty,
Why is the des row of the table the only one without a matching ending? Because des generally comes before masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive case, and these nouns actually have a genitive ending: des Mann(e)s(of the man) or des Hauses(of the house). Since that ending clearly identifies the noun's gender and case, the adjective doesn’t need to “step in” —we just use the weak ending (-en) instead!
Das Grün frischen Grases ist unvergleichlich.
The green of fresh grass is incomparable.
Let’s look at the three ending patterns side-by-side, in the same format, so you can review the differences:
With a definite article:
Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | -e | -e | -e | -en |
Accusative | -en | -e | -e | -en |
Dative | -en | -en | -en | -en |
Genitive | -en | -en | -en | -en |
With an indefinite article:
Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | -er | -e | -es | -en |
Accusative | -en | -e | -es | -en |
Dative | -en | -en | -en | -en |
Genitive | -en | -en | -en | -en |
With no article:
Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | -er | -e | -as | -e |
Accusative | -em | -e | -as | -e |
Dative | -em | -er | -em | -em |
Genitive | -en | -er | -en | -er |
Now, we have looked at all the endings — but how to remember them all? Here are six handy rules and mnemonics for you:
Rules 1-4 are for adjectives preceded by an article: | |
|---|---|
1 | The “plural rule” If the noun is plural add the weak ending: → -en |
2 | The “non-standard article rule” If article has a “non-standard form” (den/einen, dem/einem, or dative der/einer) add the weak ending: → -en |
3 | The “standard form rule” If the article has a standard form, der/die/das or ein/eine/ein, AND the article clearly identifies the noun gender add a weak ending: → -e |
4 | If a standard form article does NOT identify noun gender (ein), add a strong ending: → -er (m) OR -es (n) |
Rules 5 and 6 are for unpreceded adjectives: | |
5 | The “unpreceded rule” The adjective takes over for the missing article and receives a strong ending that reflects the absent article: der → -er; die → -e; das → -es; den → -en; dem → -em |
6 | The “genitive rule” If the noun is in the genitive case, masculine or neuter singular, the unprecedented adjective receives a weak ending, since the noun shows the case: → -en |
For strong endings, remember the good old case ending mnemonic RESE-NESE-MRMN-SRSR, which we introduce in our post on German definite articles!
Just remember that it won’t work for genitive masculine and neuter (see the 6th Rule), as they add weak endings, not strong ones:
Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | -eR | -E | -eS | -E |
Accusative | -eN | -E | -eS | -E |
Dative | -eM | -eR | -eM | -eN |
Genitive | -en | -eR | -en | -eR |
Are you more of a visual learner? Some students like to remember weak adjective endings by looking at the ‘Oklahoma’ table. See how it’s shaped just like the state of Oklahoma?
Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | -e / -er | -e | -e / -es | -en |
Accusative | -en | -e | -e / -es | -en |
Dative | -en | -en | -en | -en |
Genitive | -en | -en | -en | -en |
To wrap up, here are a few more things to learn about adjective endings:
Comparative and superlative adjectives (e.g. “bigger” or “biggest”) can be used as attributive adjectives — just follow the rules in the tables above:
Das muss der größte und schönste Papagei sein, den ich je gesehen habe!
That must be the biggest and prettiest parrot that I ever saw!
Some (but not all) adjectives that are loan words from another language receive no adjective endings, even when they’re used before a noun. Some examples are the color words orange(orange) and lila(purple), or adjectives such as extra(extra, additional), gratis(free of charge), or prima(awesome) that are loan words.
Gibt es einen Papagei mit orange und lila Federn?
Is there a parrot with orange and purple feathers?
Ich habe ein prima Buch über Pelikane, willst du es lesen?
I have a great book about pelicans, do you want to read it?
Colloquially, you can add endings to orange(orange) and lila(purple), so you might hear people might say:
die orangenen Federn / die orangen Federn
the orange feathers
You should avoid this when writing or speaking formally.
If an adjective is preceded by any number word other than ein/eine, the number word does not count as a determiner, so you’ll follow the rules for strong adjective endings:
Ich sehe zwei blaue Papageien, die mit drei anderen Vögeln kämpfen.
I see two blue parrots that are fighting with three other birds.
What if there are several adjectives in a row? Easy: if several adjectives are attributes of the same noun they also receive the same ending:
Im wilden, schönen, grünen Wald höre ich die Vögel singen.
In the wild, beautiful, green forest I am hearing the birds sing.
Here is what we found out about the colorful world of adjective endings:
Attributive adjectives receive an ending, but predicative adjectives do not.
Attributive adjectives can receive either a weak or a strong ending depending on their surroundings. The broad distinction is given below, with a few exceptions:
If an adjective is preceded by an article or related word that clearly shows the categories of case, number, or gender, it receives a weak ending, which is either -e or -en.
If an adjective is not preceded by an article, or if the article is ambiguous for noun gender, the adjective receives a strong ending that matches the form of the “missing” article.
Possessive adjectives, indefinite negation words and demonstrative articles count as articles, but most number words do not.
Some adjectives (e.g. some loan words and color words) receive no ending.
Comparatives and superlatives can also be used as attributive adjectives and receive an ending.
Now it’s time to practice! Check out these German adjective endings exercises!
