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Forms

This section will make use of the mnemonic Oklahoma, which denotes the fields of nominative masculine; nominative neuter; accusative neuter; nominative feminine; and accusative feminine, which resemble the state of Oklahoma in the tables used below. The concept is used to describe endings in two declension tables: the weak adjective declension, and the indefinite-article/ein-word declension.

The endings of attributive adjectives can be divided into two groups: strong endings and weak endings.

Strong Adjective Declension

Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	-er	-es	-e	-e
Accusative	-en	-es	-e	-e
Dative	-em	-em	-er ||-en
Genitive	-en	-en	-er	-er

The strong adjective endings are nearly the same as the der-word endings, with the exceptions of masculine and neuter adjectives in the genitive case (marked in bold).

Weak Adjective Declension

Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	-e	-e	-e	-en
Accusative	-en	-e	-e	-en
Dative	-en	-en	-en	-en
Genitive	-en	-en	-en	-en

Make note of the region, Oklahoma, in the nominative and accusitive cases, for weak endings.

The use of a weak or a strong adjective ending depends on what precedes it:

Choice of Adjective Ending

Preceding Article	Choice of Ending
Definite Article, der-words	Weak Ending
Indefinite Article, ein-words	Within Oklahoma, Strong Ending
	Outside Oklahoma, Weak Ending
No article	Strong Ending

The principle guiding adjective endings is that a noun, when possible, should have a primary case ending. Definite articles and der-words always provide a primary case ending. Indefinite articles and ein-words provide primary case endings outside of Oklahoma. Sometimes nouns have no article, in which case adjectives provide the primary case ending.

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Forms in Context of Articles

This terminology - strong and weak endings - is confusing for many students. As the student develops, he or she will develop an ear for case endings, and will recognize when a noun has and has not received a case ending. Nonetheless, it is worth providing the three declension tables that result from this principle.

Adjective Declension following a Definite Article or der-word

Case	Masculine!! Neuter	Feminine	Plural
	the large man	the small book	the quiet cat	the red apples
Nominative	der große Mann	das kleine Buch	die ruhige Katze	die roten Äpfel
Accusative	den großen Mann	das kleine Buch	die ruhige Katze	die roten Äpfel
Dative	dem großen Mann	dem kleinen Buch	der ruhigen Katze	den roten Äpfeln
Genitive	des großen Mannes	des kleinen Buchs	der ruhigen Katze	der roten Äpfel

Adjectives following a definite article or der-word always have a weak ending. Within Oklahoma, that is "-e", and outside of Oklahoma, that is "-en". Oklahoma is in bold to illustrate this.

Adjective Declension following an Indefinite Article or ein-word

Case	Masculine!! Neuter	Feminine	Plural
	a large man	a small book	a quiet cat	no red apples
Nominative	ein großer Mann	ein kleines Buch	eine ruhige Katze	keine roten Äpfel
Accusative	einen großen Mann	ein kleines Buch	eine ruhige Katze	keine roten Äpfel
Dative	einem großen Mann	einem kleinen Buch	einer ruhigen Katze	keinen roten Äpfeln
Genitive	eines großen Mannes	eines kleinen Buchs	einer ruhigen Katze	keiner roten Äpfel

Note how, within Oklahoma (in bold), adjectives take strong endings, and outside Oklahoma, they take weak endings. This is because indefinite articles provide primary endings only ouside of Oklahoma.

Adjective Declension with no preceding article

Case	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	großer Mann	kleines Buch	ruhige Katze	rote Äpfel
Accusative	großen Mann	kleines Buch	ruhige Katze	rote Äpfel
Dative	großem Mann	kleinem Buch	ruhiger Katze	roten Äpfeln
Genitive	großen Mannes	kleinen Buchs	ruhiger Katze	roter Äpfel

Forms of nouns without articles are rare compared to those with definite and indefinite articles; however, one must still know the strong declension. Note that the strong adjective declension is almost the same as the der-word endings, with the exceptions of masculine and neuter in the genitive case (in bold).