A few days ago a student of mine came to me quite frustrated and said,

 

"Manuel, I’ve already completed a language course a long time ago and have already reached a B1 level, but if there is one thing that I still don’t get, it's this weird German adjective declension. I remember when the teacher started to throw in one table after another and started to talk about different endings, weak ones, mixed ones, strong ones, grammar rules, cases… it made my eyes glaze over.

 

I remember thinking, ‘Please stop shooting me.’ And I always tried to calm myself by saying, ‘I'll figure this out later.’ But to be honest, it's still a mystery to me. How do I put the right endings to adjectives, and when and why?

 

I've never managed to figure out the exact endings of the adjectives. When I had to describe something using adjectives, I was afraid to pronounce the endings because I was afraid of making mistakes.

 

But speaking was not the most frustrating experience. When writing emails to customers, I was rarely sure that I used them in the right way. The insecurity gets even worse when you are getting paid for the job you are doing. After years of dealing with these endings, I came to the frustrating conclusion that it may just be a matter of time before I get used to them.

 

Manuel, I know that there is a logical system behind this, I know that even the German language is ‘Made in Germany.’ But be honest with me: Is there a way to master this topic painlessly and without memorizing tons of tables and grammar rules?"

 

I said to him, “Yes, give me one session and you'll be ready.”

 

He started to smile at me and said, “Really if it takes a few sessions, it’s no problem. I remember it taking us several sessions to cover all the different cases, endings, articles… arghhh this frustrating feeling is coming up again.”

 

I smiled at him and said, “Really, only this one session. And I'm even going to go one step further: you'll only need to memorize just one table, and I'll show you a trick to achieving this in less than one minute.”

 

He said, “I don't believe you.”

 

I said to him, “So let's give it a try, and you can tell me if I'm right.”

 

So, here we go.

 

Why do adjectives have special endings?

 

In the beginning, you may have learned adjectives and used them at the end of a sentence:

 

  • Der Computer ist sehr billig. The computer is very cheap.
  • Die Suppe ist salzig. The soup is salty.
  • Das Auto ist schnell. The car is fast.
  • Die Autos sind schnell. The cars are fast.

 

But adjectives can also be in front of a noun:

 

  • Der billige Computer. The cheap computer.
  • Die salzige Suppe. The salty soup.
  • Das schnelle Auto. The fast car.
  • Die schnellen Autos. The fast cars.

 

You see that in this case, the adjective gets a special ending. Why?

 

Whenever the adjective is in front of the noun, it is part of it and it is affected by the case (i.e.: nominative, accusative, or dative). But whenever the adjective is placed after the noun, it is not affected.

 

  • Das schnelle Auto ist schnell. The fast car is fast.

 

So, what kind of ending will it take?

 

For now we will cover the case in which an article with an ending accompanies the noun. But what is an article with an ending?

 

  • der, die, das, den, dem
  • eine, einer
  • keine, keiner
  • meine, meiner

 

You see, the underlined endings are all endings that reveal a certain case (nominative, accusative, dative). They give a clear case signal.

 

In this case, the adjective will take a so-called “weak” ending according to the following table. Don't freak out: you won't need to memorize this table now. In a minute, I'll show you a trick to memorizing this in only a few seconds.

 

Adjective “Weak” Endings

 

 

Masculine

Feminine

Neutral

Plural

Nominative

-e

-e

-e

-en

Accusative

-en

-e

-e

-en

Dative

-en

-en

-en

-en

 

Why do we call them weak endings?

 

Since we already have a clear case signal from the article with an ending, we don't need any additional case signal. There is already a case signal so that the adjective takes just a “weak” ending. Later, we will cover articles that don’t have endings or where there is no article at all and the adjective gets a “strong” ending.

 

OK, how do we memorize this table in just one minute?

 

You can see that there are just two types of endings: -e and -en.

 

For the first step, I think it should be easy for you to reproduce the following table since you've dealt with it before:

 

 

Masculine

Feminine

Neutral

Plural

Nominative

       

Accusative

       

Dative

       

 

Now notice the gray fields: the only ones with the ending -e.

 



The fields that contain the -e ending can be memorized with the help of a toothbrush. Can you recognize the toothbrush in the table?

 

 

You see that all plural and dative forms will get the -en ending. All the nominative and accusative singular forms will get the -e ending with the exception of the masculine accusative that is the shaft of the toothbrush.

 

OK, so now you understand the endings from the examples before.

 

  • Der billige Computer. The cheap computer.
    • nominative, masculine, singular > “weak” ending -e.
  • Die salzige Suppe. The salty soup.
    • nominative, feminine, singular > “weak” ending -e.
  • Das schnelle Auto. The fast car.
    • nominative, neutral, singular > “weak” ending -e.
  • Die schnellen Autos. The fast cars.
    • nominative, plural, singular > “weak” ending -en.  

 

So remember, you will use these “weak” endings whenever you have an article with an ending.

 

  • Der grüne Apfel. The green apple.
    • nominative, masculine, singular > “weak” ending -e.

 

Let's dissect the sentence: Der is an article with an ending -er > we have a clear case signal > the adjective will take a “weak” ending. Apfel here is nominative, masculine, and singular > so the “weak” ending for the adjective is within the toothbrush > “weak” ending -e > grüne Apfel.

 

  • Ich esse meinen grünen Apfel. I eat my green apple.
    • accusative, masculine, singular > “weak” ending -en.

 

Let's dissect one more example: meinen is an article with an ending -en > we have a clear case signal > the adjective will take a “weak” ending. Apfel here is accusative, masculine, and singular > so the “weak” ending for the adjective is under the shaft of the toothbrush > “weak” ending -en > grünen Apfel.

 

  • Meine grünen Äpfel. My green apples.
    • nominative, plural > “weak” ending -en
  • Ich esse keine grünen Äpfel. I eat no green apples.
    • accusative, plural > “weak” ending -en
  • Eine gelbe Banane. A yellow banana.
    • nominative, feminine, singular > “weak” ending -e
  • Das Kind mit einer gelben Banane. The child with a yellow banana.
    • dative, feminine, singular > “weak” ending -en
  • Keine gelben Bananen. No yellow bananas.
    • nominative, plural > “weak” ending -en
  • Das Kind mit den gelben Bananen. The child with the yellow bananas.
    • dative, plural > “weak” ending -en

 

And what about these so called “strong” endings?

 

So now, let's cover the case when there is no article or an article without an ending. To make this point clear, see here the difference between articles with endings and without endings.

 

Definite

Indefinite

Possessive

Negative

der

ein*

mein*

kein*

das

ein*

dein*

kein*

die

eine

seine

keine

den

einen

unseren

keinen

dem

einem

eurem

keinem

 

 

Notice that the * marked articles don't have endings. They don't give a clear case signal. When using these articles, the adjectives will take the endings of the definite articles. Do you remember the definite articles? At this stage you should be familiar with them. Here they are again.

 

Definite Articles and “Strong” Endings

 

 

Masculine

Feminine

Neutral

Plural

Nominative

d-er

di-e

da-s

di-e

Accusative

d-en

di-e

da-s

di-e

Dative

d-em

d-er

d-em

d-en

 

The underlined endings are the strong endings. Why do we call them strong endings?

 

Since we don't have a clear case signal from the article (it has no ending or there is no article at all), this time we need an additional case signal. Now, the adjective must give a clear case signal.

 

Or in other words, it's as if the adjective has to include the corresponding definite article ending that is missing.

 

  • Schnelle Autos sind teuer. Fast cars are expensive.

 

There is no article, so there is still no case signal. Autos is in this case nominative, neutral, and plural: die Autos > schnelle Autos

 

  • Ich trinke gerne heissen Kaffee. I like to drink hot coffee.

 

There is no article, so there is still no case signal. Kaffee here here accusative, masculine, and singular: den Kaffee > heissen Kaffee

 

  • Ein schnelles Auto. A fast car.

 

Ein* is an article without an ending, so there is no case signal given by the article. Auto here is nominative, neutral, and singular: das Auto > schnelles Auto

 

  • Mein starker Mann. My strong man.

 

Mein* is an article without an ending, so there is no case signal given by the article. Mann here is nominative, masculine, and singular: der Mann > starker Mann

 

Let's Summarize

 

  • Whenever there is an adjective placed after a noun, it will take no ending.
  • Whenever there is an adjective in front of a noun, it will take a special ending.
  • If the noun is accompanied by an article with an ending, the adjective will take a weak ending.
  • If the noun is accompanied by an article without an ending or if there is no article at all, the adjective will take a strong ending.
  • You will just need to memorize one table, the one with the weak endings. But with the trick of the toothbrush, it should be easy to reproduce the table.
  • You already know the strong endings because they correspond to the endings of the direct articles you know.

 

OK, I understand the “technical part,” but how can I apply this spontaneously when speaking?

 

Well, this will take time and practice, of course. But now you should be able to figure out the correct endings in an easier way and be able to correct yourself over time.

 

To start practicing this approach, you can find a worksheet here that will help you understand the difference between articles with and without endings. The worksheet will also help you start noticing when to use weak endings and strong endings.

 

Here you can also get access to a special audio I've recorded where I go through this entire topic in detail with many examples that will give you a better “feeling” for the adjective declension while you listen to it.

 

And what about the genitive case that we haven't covered so far? I haven't covered the genitive case since the most used cases are just the nominative, accusative, and dative. The genitive case is more for upper levels of German once you enter C1/C2.

 

But now that we understand the basic principle, let's head over to the genitive and see that the same rules apply with one tiny addition.

 

Remember the basic principle: we will only ever need one case signal.

 

First, let's start with the weak endings. The Genitive will take the same weak endings as the dative ones in the case of having a case signal in the article that accompanies the noun.

 

This should be pretty simple since you can stick to the same table for the weak endings and use the same trick to memorize this table. You will just have to add one line for the genitive case.

 

  • Dieser Ferrari ist das Auto des reichen Mannes. This Ferrari is the rich man's car.
  • Dieser Ferrari ist das Auto der reichen Frau. This Ferrari is the rich woman's car.
  • Dieser Ferrari ist das Auto des reichen Mädchens. This Ferrari is the rich girl's car.
  • Dieser Ferrari ist das Auto der reichen Männer. This Ferrari is a car for rich men.

 

And what about the strong endings in the genitive?

 

You remember that the strong endings are basically the endings of the definite articles? Here they are completed with the genitive definite articles.

 

Definite Articles and “Strong” Endings

 

 

Masculine

Feminine

Neutral

Plural

Nominative

d-er

di-e

da-s

di-e

Accusative

d-en

di-e

da-s

di-e

Dative

d-em

d-er

d-em

d-en

Genitive

d-es (-en*)

d-er

d-es (-en*)

d-er

 

You see that I've marked the genitive masculine and neutral articles and added the weak endings -en.

 

Why? Well, you may already know that we add an additional -s to the genitive nouns in the masculine and neutral.

 

  • Der Kauf teuren Weines ist sehr beliebt. The purchase of expensive wine is very popular.
  • Der Kauf deutschen Bieres ist sehr beliebt. The purchase of German beer is very popular.

 

In these examples there is no article at all, so there is no case signal given by an article. BUT since we already have a clear case signal given by this additional genitive -s in the noun, the adjectives will take just the weak endings. We don't need any additional case signal or the strong endings because we already have a clear case signal provided by the s added to the noun and not by articles before the adjective as is normally the case.

 

And of course we use the weak endings also when a noun is accompanied by an article with an ending.

 

  • Der Kauf der frischen Milch ist sehr beliebt. The purchase of fresh milk is very popular.

 

Der is an article with an ending -er > Milch here is genitive, feminine, and singular > “weak” ending -en > der frischen Milch.

 

  • Der Kauf der gesunden Lebensmittel ist sehr beliebt. The purchase of healthy food is very popular.

 

Der is an article with an ending -er > Lebensmittel here is genitive and plural > “weak” ending -en > der gesunden Lebensmittel.

 

And when do we use the strong endings? Well, as you can see from the table, we will use the strong endings just for the feminine and plural forms and of course in case we don't have a case signal.

 

  • Der Kauf frischer Milch ist sehr beliebt. The purchase of fresh milk is very popular.

 

There is no article and still no case signal. Milch is in this case genitive, feminine, and singular: der Milch > frischer Milch.

 

  • Der Kauf gesunder Lebensmittel ist sehr beliebt. The purchase of healthy food is very popular.

 

There is no article and still no case signal. Lebensmittel is in this case genitive, neutral, and plural: der Lebensmittel > gesunder Lebensmittel.

 

I know this was a lot of information; do you want to review this topic again with some extra materials? Get a cheat sheet, worksheet, and a detailed audio file to review and reinforce this topic in detail here.

 

What is still your single biggest challenge with learning German? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Manuel also writes a blog helping engineers learn to speak better German. You can find him here at www.herrprofessor.com.

 

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