German Adjective Declensions

Adjective Declensions

German adjectives work just like English ones, except that they take on case endings when they come right before a noun:

Der Hund ist groß und braun. The dog is big and brown.

Der große braune Hund bellte mich an. The big brown dog barked at me.

To understand these endings, you need to be familiar with the “hard” endings for nouns from Section II.3. The rule for adjectives before a noun is this: when there’s no hard ending in the noun or article, add it to the adjective. When there is a hard ending in the noun or article, the adjective takes a “soft” ending as follows:
MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER PLURAL
Nominative -e -e -e -en
Accusative -en -e -e -en
Dative -en -en -en -en
Genitive -en -en -en -en
The following tables show how this rule is applied. The hard endings are highlighted in yellow, and the “soft” adjective endings are underlined. With a definite article, the adjective ending is always soft:
  TYPE 1: Definite Articles “The nice man / woman / child / children”
MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER PLURAL
Nominative der nette Mann die nette Frau das nette Kind die nettenKinder
Accusative den nettenMann die nette Frau das nette Kind die nettenKinder
Dative dem nettenMann der nettenFrau dem nettenKind den nettenKindern
Genitive des nettenMannes der nettenFrau des nettenKindes der nettenKinder
  For the indefinite and possessive articles, the adjective endings are the same except for the three places where the article has no hard ending and the adjective has to take it on:
  TYPE 2: Indefinite & Possessive Articles “My little dog / cat / bunny / birds”
MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER PLURAL
Nominative mein kleinerHund meine kleineKatze mein kleinesKaninchen meine kleinenVögel
Accusative meinen kleinenHund meine kleineKatze mein kleinesKaninchen meine kleinenVögel
Dative meinem kleinenHund meiner kleinenKatze meinemkleinenKaninchen meinen kleinenVögeln
Genitive meines kleinenHundes meiner kleinenKatze meines kleinenKaninchens meiner kleinenVögel
And with no article (“the taste of hot coffee”), the adjective always takes on the hard ending, except in the three cases where it’s still there on the noun:
  TYPE 3: No Article “hot coffee / cold milk / fresh bread / warm rolls”
MASCULINE FEMININE NEUTER PLURAL
Nominative heißer Kaffee kalte Milch frisches Brot warmeBrötchen
Accusative heißen Kaffee kalte Milch frisches Brot warmeBrötchen
Dative heißem Kaffee kalter Milch frischem Brot warmenBrötchen
Genitive heißen Kaffees kalter Milch frischenBrotes warmerBrötchen
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