Adjectives

An adjective is a word used to describe a noun or a pronoun, e.g. a small chair, the long journey, an old friend, the brown dog; or: Clothes are expensive. She is fat. The road is clear.

From these examples you can see that an adjective can be used in two different ways, either immediately before the noun it describes, or after the verb. In English, although we use adjectives in both these ways, they do not change. In German, however, if the adjective comes before the noun, then it must be declined.

For example, in English we say both 'The man is tall' and 'the tall man'.

In German there is a distinct difference: 'Der Mann ist gross' (after 'sein' - no declension)

BUT, 'Der grosser Mann'

Part of the problem is that there are three different sets of adjective endings in German. Here for reference are the three declensions of adjective endings in full, followed by some tips on how to remember them.

(a)    Weak declension

This is used after der (the) and words declined like der, i.e. dieser (this), jeder (each,every), jener (that), solcher (such), welcher (which) and alle (all).

This is fairly straight forward to remember, as there are only two endings: -e or -en. Make a careful note of where the -e endings are used!

(b)    Mixed declension

This is used after ein (a, an), kein (not a / any), and the possessive adjectives, mein (my), dein (your), sein (his), ihr (her), unser (our), euer (your), Ihr (your formally) and ihr (their).

Using kein as the indroductory word because ein has no plural form, here is the full declension:

This declension is very similar to the weak declension.

(c) Strong declension

These endings are used when there is no preceding determining word like der or ein.

The most important point about this declension is that as there is no determining word like der or ein the adjective follows the pattern of endings of der and dieser, except in the masculine and neuter genitive singular, where the endings is -en.

Secondly, these endings are used after the cardinal numerals (except ein), e.g. zwei gute Romane, two good novels, and after the words viele, wenige, einige and mehrere, e.g.:

viele kleine Kinder, many small children

wenige frische Eier, a few fresh eggs

ein Haus mit einigen grossen Zimmern, a house with some large rooms

Other points about adjectives

(a)    Almost all adjectives can be used as nouns. To do this simply write the adjective with a capital letter and decline it as above.

        Der Alte sitzt im Gras. The old man is sitting on the grass.   

        Ein Alter kam ins Hotel. An old man came into the hotel.

(b)    Some adjectives have a slightly different form when they are inflected:

        dunkel (dark) loses the 'e': ein dunkles Haus

        hoch (high) loses the 'c': ein hoher Berg

(c)    Adjectives can be formed from the names of towns by adding -er. These adjectives never change, they are invariable.

        der Hamburger Hafen, the port of Hamburg

        die Salzburger Kaufhäuser, the department stores of Salzburg.