German - Adjectives

German adjectives are a core part of the grammar, and while they seem complex at first, they follow a very logical, pattern-based system.

The Two Faces of an Adjective

The most important concept to understand is that a German adjective behaves in two completely different ways depending on where it is in a sentence.

1. Predicative Adjectives (The Easy Part)

When an adjective comes after the noun and is separated by a verb (usually sein - to be, or werden - to become), it is called a predicative adjective. In this position, the adjective never changes. Its ending is always the basic dictionary form. This is the simplest way to use an adjective.

• Das Auto ist schnell. (The car is fast.)
• Die Frau ist intelligent. (The woman is intelligent.)
• Die Häuser sind neu. (The houses are new.)

No matter the gender, case, or number of the noun, the adjective schnell, intelligent, or neu stays the same.

2. Attributive Adjectives (The Tricky Part)

When an adjective comes before the noun it describes, it is called an attributive adjective. In this position, the adjective must take an ending. This process is called adjective declension.

The ending you add to the adjective is determined by three things:

1. The gender of the noun (masculine, feminine, neuter).
2. The case of the noun (Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive).
3. The type of article used before the adjective (definite, indefinite, or no article).

This sounds complicated, but it follows a set of patterns. The purpose of these endings is to provide the listener with all the grammatical information about the noun, even if the article itself doesn't.

Adjective Declension: The Three Patterns

There are three main scenarios for adding endings to attributive adjectives.

Pattern 1: After a Definite Article (der, die, das, etc.) - "Weak Declension"

This is the easiest pattern. When the definite article (der, die, das) is already clearly showing the noun's gender and case, the adjective doesn't have to do much work.

• The adjective takes an -en ending in most cases.
• It only takes an -e ending in the Nominative singular (for all genders) and the Accusative singular (for feminine and neuter).

Examples:

• Nominative: der gute Mann, die gute Frau, das gute Kind
• Accusative: Ich sehe den guten Mann, die gute Frau, das gute Kind
• Dative: Ich helfe dem guten Mann, der guten Frau, dem guten Kind
• Plural (all cases): die guten Leute

Rule of thumb: If the article has a strong, unique ending (like den, dem, des), the adjective is "weak" and takes -en.

Pattern 2: After an Indefinite Article (ein, eine, kein, etc.) - "Mixed Declension"

When the indefinite article (ein) doesn't clearly show the gender or case (for example, ein could be masculine or neuter Nominative), the adjective has to "step in" and provide that information. It takes on the strong ending that the definite article would have had.

Examples:

• Nominative: ein guter Mann (takes the -er from der)
• Nominative: ein gutes Kind (takes the -es from das)
• Nominative: eine gute Frau (both end in -e, so it's easy)

Once the case is clear from the article's form (like einen or einem), the adjective can relax again and defaults back to the weak -en ending.

• Accusative: Ich sehe einen guten Mann.
• Dative: Ich helfe einem guten Mann.

Pattern 3: With No Article - "Strong Declension"

When there is no article at all, the adjective must do all the work of showing the gender and case. Therefore, it takes the "strong" ending that the definite article would have had.

• Guter Wein ist teuer. (Good wine is expensive.) - Takes the -er from der Wein.
• Ich trinke kaltes Wasser. (I drink cold water.) - Takes the -es from das Wasser.
• Mit guten Freunden... (With good friends...) - Takes the -en from den Freunden (Dative plural).

Comparative and Superlative

Like in English, adjectives have forms to make comparisons.

1. Comparative (more ... than / -er)

• Formed by adding -er to the adjective. The word for "than" is als.
• schnell → schneller (fast → faster)
• Mein Auto ist schneller als dein Auto. (My car is faster than your car.)
• Note: Many one-syllable adjectives with the vowels a, o, or u will take an umlaut.
  • alt → älter (old → older)
  • groß → größer (big → bigger)

2. Superlative (the ...-est)

There are two ways to form the superlative.

• Attributive (before a noun): Use am + adjective + -sten.
  • schnell → am schnellsten (the fastest)
  • Mein Auto ist am schnellsten. (My car is the fastest.)
• Predicative (as part of a phrase): Use the correct definite article + the adjective + -ste ending. The adjective must then be declined as usual.
  • Das ist das schnellste Auto. (That is the fastest car.)