These adjectives now require the same letter that would have been on the definite article. The first one used an -e while the last two used -en. While an adjective in English stays the same no matter the plurality or role of the noun, German adjectives need to be adjusted with different endings to indicate the gender, plurality, and case of the noun. The only change between the adjectives after definite articles chart and the adjectives after indefinite articles chart are with the masculine and neuter forms in the nominative case and the neuter form in the accusative case. Therefore we only need an -e at the end of the adjective. Of course, my Deutschlerner on Patreon and my Channel Members on YouTube already get these materials as part of their subscription. Which generous teacher gave all of the poor children these warm coats? (or in a plural that already ends in "-s", with just the apostrophe): The genitive case der netten rztin obviously also uses an -en at the end of the adjective. In the sentence "Das Haus ist grau."
One example is vergessen, although the name of the flower Vergissmeinnicht (forget-me-not) remains. As you probably guessed, this has to do with the gender of nouns and the cases in which they are used. In the genitive case we use the ending -er on the adjective, because the article would have been der. You can click here and download the adjective endings charts used in this lesson for free. While einige looks like an article, it means some and doesnt count as an article when it comes to the adjective endings that follow. I like the taste of yellow cheese. See below for a discussion of when the genitive is used in German, but first we will examine how it is configured. German Adjective Endings: Nominative, Accusative, and Dative Cases. These examples follow the feminine noun Milch through all of the cases. What do you notice about the wordgrau? German adjectives get extra precise about their forms by aligning in several ways with the noun they describe. The adjective endings -er, -e, and -escorrespond to the articlesder,die, anddasrespectively (masc., fem., and neuter). After the preposition mit we use the dative case, which is indicated by the masculine and neuter articles einem and the feminine article einer. This does not cost you any extra, but it does help keep this website going. nominative, accusative, The articles for masculine and neuter nouns are both ein, while the feminine nouns require eine.
("He has a new house."). The adjective endings for thegenitivecase follow the same pattern as the dative. Once you notice the parallel and the agreement of the lettersn,e,swithden,die,das, it makes the process a little clearer. In the dative case we use the ending -em to indicate the neuter form, just as the article dem would have done. The exception to this is in predicate position or when they occur after the noun + the English equivalent verb is/are. In this position they do not need to decline and are indistinguishable from adverbs. 
Herr Antrim is a German teacher with over 10 years of teaching experience. Gelber Kse schmeckt mir nicht. My students remember that the adjective endings that require -e connect together to look like the state of Oklahoma in the USA. The grammar of modern German is similar to Old English (including gender for nouns!). You often dont need an article with plural nouns, so it stands to reason that you would often use an adjective with those nouns, too. The only one that doesnt match is in the genitive case. Er entschuldigte sich immer wieder wegen seines schlechten Deutsch. Copyright 2021 Learn German with Herr Antrim. "the horse's mouth"; "the books' covers." Now lets look at a few more examples using these articles and the adjectives that follow them.
I like the smell of fresh bread. As with the other examples, all of the nouns in this sentence use the same gender. *This site uses a variety of affiliate links. alle (all) The adjective ending rule here is: in the accusative case with the definite article (the/den, die, das) the adjective ending is always -enforthemasculine(den) form. The adjective endings for all of the adjectives in this case are -en. Flippo, Hyde. "Bist du dem Mann seine Frau?" jed- (every) What you may have noticed, however, is that the endings for the German adjectives changed sometimes.
Increasingly, writers' manuals call for an "-'s" in those cases as well ("Louis's book"), For the most part, adjectives occur before the noun, just like in English. Das Abstellen von Farhrdern ist verboten. The funny doctors little dog brings the old man the red apple. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Die kluge Frau der netten rztin kauft der 5-jhrigen Tochter die teure Halskette. The predicate is the part of the sentence after the verb. All of these nouns in this sentence are masculine, so the only adjective that ends with -e is the one in the nominative case. But if we say "Das Mdchen ist schn." Becoming comfortable choosing one quickly while speaking comes with a bit of practice.
Since the article ein could be masculine or neuter in the nominative case, we still have to identify the gender through the adjective, which in this case indicates neuter with -es at the end. In the accusative case, feminine and neuter nouns require an -e at the end of the adjective. Here are the the ways in which the three genders and their plurals are indicated as being in the genitive case: Note that the possessive adjectives (mein, dein, sein, ihr, etc.) What you might not have guessed is that it also depends on what comes before the adjective. The children are loud today. It shows you the definite and indefinite articles with the adjective endings that follow them plus the unpreceded adjective endings, which are indicated with a blank line in front. Instead we use genitive demonstrative pronouns, getting structures like whrend dessen [in the meantime], Download the app and enjoy Lingvist at its best. The placement of the adjective in German and English is exactly the same, between the article (the word for the, a or an) and the noun. Flippo, Hyde. As the name suggests, these adjectives show up after the verb and describe the noun at the beginning. Meine Brder und deren Kinder sind schon angekommen. This sentence has all four cases in it. Strong forms are used with indefinite articles (a/an in English) or when there is no determiner.
diesseits [on this side of], and jenseits [on the other side of]: George O. Curme's Grammar of the German Language (New York: Macmillan, 1922) lists Frisches Brot ist das Beste. She is playing soccer with my old father, my young mother and my small bunny. So we would get "Der blaueWagen" (The blue car), "Die kleineStadt.." (The small town), or "Das schneMdchen" (The pretty girl). https://www.thoughtco.com/german-adjective-endings-nominative-case-4070890 (accessed July 22, 2022). For example: Other endings of weak nouns are "-ant," "-arch," "-ege," "-ent," "-ist," "-oge," "-om," "-oph," and "-ot." A few weak nouns add "-ns," for example: One neuter noun is also weak in the dative and takes an "-ens" in the genitive: While the Latin accusative and dative forms of Jesus Christus (Jesum Christum, Jeso Christo) are not used in modern German, the genitive is: jen- (that) "German Adjective Endings: Nominative, Accusative, and Dative Cases." Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/german-adjective-endings-nominative-case-4070890. My brother is young.Die Kinder sind heute laut. Some examples: Again: note that all of these nouns are masculine. The following chart shows the adjective endings for thenominativecase with the definite articles (der, die, das) and the indefinite articles (ein, eine, keine). These examples follow the masculine noun Kse through each of the cases. The only exceptions are in the genitive case for masculine or neuter nouns. In the accusative case the ending becomes -en, which is the same as the masculine accusative article den. Hallo, Deutschlerner. We like cold milk.Ich esse gerne Kekse mit kalter Milch. It is important to remember that certain words in German act like definite articles. All of the other forms in all of the other cases require -en at the end. You can download all of the materials Herr Antrim has ever created about German adjectives in one bargain bundle here. statt dessen [instead of that], and trotz dessen [despite that] written as one or two words. The big horse is eating a carrot.Ein groes Pferd isst eine Mhre. When we put endings on words, we are "inflecting" or "declining" them. Der kleine Hund des lustigen Arztes bringt dem alten Mann den roten Apfel. While this is also important in German, there are a few other properties of the noun that you need to consider before selecting the correct ending. Primarily, the genitive designates a relationship between two nouns in which one of them belongs to the other. So we would get "den blauenWagen" (the blue car), but "dieblaueTr.." (the blue door), or "dasblaueBuch" (the blue book).
Basically, if it isnt one of your Oklahomies, use -en on the adjective. In the genitive, there is no distinction between a "der-word" and an "ein-word."1.
This is the easiest way to use adjectives, but it doesnt lend itself to very much variety or flexibility. This smart boy has seen every dumb film by Tarantino. In earlier times, a singular noun (usually a name) that ended in "-s" received only an apostrophe ("Bess' house"), but the ending was Here they are again for reference: They are also used with demonstratives pointing something out and a few other quantitative terms: derselb- (the same) "Sie ist eines Nachts weggelaufen." Then you can click here to purchase the extra materials that go with this lesson including a worksheet and answer key to practice these adjective endings. The adjective endings -en, -e, and -escorrespond to the articlesden,die, anddasrespectively (masc., fem., and neuter). We have created an app that gets the most out of Lingvist and your device.
The former can be in any case, but the latter is in the genitive: Note that the genitive noun comes second. If you want access to new materials each week, click the links for Patreon or Channel Membership. In sentence 2, the German wordgrauhas an -eending and the English word "gray" has no ending. When using the genitive case, the articles for masculine and neuter nouns end with -s. The adjectives that follow them use -en. ), the adjective must reflect the gender of the noun that follows. Flippo, Hyde. Both of these are expressed in German with words that act like indefinite articles. The next logical question is: Why doesgrauhave an ending in one sentence but not the other?
As long as there is an article before the adjective in the dative case, the ending on the adjective is -en. dies- (this) However, when the adjective is used with anein-word (ein,dein,keine, etc. a total of 123 prepositions that take the genitive (p. 357), but most are very rare or confined to legal language. ), the accusative adjective ending must reflect the gender and case of the noun that follows. Die lauten Kinder der faulen Eltern schreien die bldesten Beleidigungen von den hchsten Stellen des Spielturms. Weak endings are easier to remember because they are all either -e or -en. I like my younger brother.Die Mutter gibt den lauten Kindern keine Schokolade. These are all neuter. The good film starts in 30 minutes.Ich mag meinen jngeren Bruder. A frequent alternative to the genitive case is a prepositional phrase with "of": "the color of the car" (= "the car's color"). The children in this sentence are the indirect object of the sentence, which makes them dative. Yellow cheese doesnt taste good to me.Ich mag gelben Kse.
As you might have guessed, all of these nouns are plural, with the exception of the last one in the sentence, der Spielturm.
is simple because the ending is always -ein thenominativecase (except for the plural which is always -enin all situations!). In English, this can be done directly before the noun, which is how you are probably thinking this is done, or it can be done far away from the noun. It is certainly used less than one or two centuries ago, but it still occupies an important position. The adjective endings that follow those words follow the same patterns as the adjectives after indefinite articles do. German Adjective Endings for the Nominative Case, Rules for Definite and Indefinite Articles, German Adjective Endings for the Accusative Case, German Adjective Endings for the Dative Case, Practice Using the Right Adjective Case and Ending. German Adjectives Used Directly Before the Nouns They Describe, German Adjectives After Der-Words (Definite Articles), Examples of German Adjectives Used with Der-Words (Definite Articles), German Words That Act Like Der-Words (Definite Articles), German Adjectives with Ein-Words (Indefinite Articles), Examples Comparing Adjective Endings After Der-Words and After Ein-Words, German Words That Act Like Ein-Words (Indefinite Articles), Examples of German Adjectives Used with Ein-Words (Indefinite Articles), Unpreceded (Nullartikel) Adjective Endings in German, Masculine Examples of German Adjectives without an Article, Feminine Examples of German Adjectives without an Article, Neuter Examples of German Adjectives without an Article, Plural Examples of German Adjectives without an Article. Feminine and neuter nouns dont change their articles or adjective endings for the accusative case. All like fresh bread.Wir machen unser Mittagessen mit frischem Brot. But it remains -efordieordas. In those sentences, the words good, young and loud are adjectives that describe the subjects of the film, my brother and the children. This alignment, which is a type of inflection (like verbs undergo), is called declension. As in the accusative and dative cases, the so-called weak masculine nouns take an "-n" or "-en" in the genitive. Jesu Christi. I am buying a red ball, a yellow banana and a black sheep.
Adjectives for masculine nouns get -er, feminine -e and neuter -es. I like yellow cheese.Ich mache ein belegtes Brot mit gelbem Kse. If the noun is in the dative or genitive case and there is a definite article before the adjective, add -en to the adjective. The adjective that follows requires -e for the same reasons. Wir danken im Namen derer, die in Nte geraten sind. The grammar-police find that appalling, but in fact the dative is actually the older form. Welche freigiebige Lehrerin hat allen armen Kindern diese warmen Mntel gegeben?
In fact, we can describe any noun we like within the sentence. If you know what your chart looks like and which forms are where, you can simply remember your Oklahomies and your Tex-ens. When the relationship between two English nouns is defined by one's possession of the other, Sign up for Lingvists online German course to start quizzing yourself and get your brain used to recognizing the case, gender, and plurality of the noun, as well as which article you want to use. This shows us the transition from nominative to accusative. Look at the two sentences again, and you can probably see a significant difference. In English, the only feature of the noun that is obvious is the plurality; whether were talking about one single object (cat) or multiple (cats). Das ist alles fr heute. Kluge Kinder erzhlen vertrauenswrdigen Eltern doofe Geschichten anstatt echter Wahrheiten. If the adjective (grau) comesbeforethe noun (Haus), it needs an ending. The following chart shows the adjective endings for theaccusativecase(direct object) with definite articles (der, dem, der) and the indefinite articles (einen,einem,einer,keinen). After youve determined the gender of the noun, you need to think about the case.
In the nominative case, all of the singular forms require an -e at the end of the adjective. This time we have the feminine form welche to indicate that the teacher is the subject of the sentence and therefore nominative.
Furthermore, their plural forms are the same as their accusative, dative, and genitive singular forms: e.g.. ("Herr" is an exception: den Herrn, dem Herrn, des Herrn; [plural:] die Herren, den Herren, der Herren). This is pretty rare with singular forms, but it can be done, for example. The placing it first, as in English, makes it sound either archaic or poetic: Proper names in the genitive do precede the noun, however.
Pauls Sohn und dessen Freunde haben Hunger. It is masculine and its only there to make the rest of the sentence work. With weak nouns the accusative and the dative are usually identical with the genitive but not always. Dieser kluge Junge hat jeden blden Film von Tarantino gesehen. If strong endings are used with indefinite articles, weak endings are used with thats right definite articles!
ThoughtCo. The mother isnt giving the loud children any chocolate.