Adjectives#

Declension#

In most situations, adjectives in German must agree in gender, [[Syntax#Case System|case]] and number with the [[Nouns|noun]] they pertain to. For the most part, this is done by adding different declension endings to the adjective's canonical form.

However, adjectives whose canonical form ends in an unstressed -el or -er may lose this -e- when declining:
- Adjectives whose cannonical form ends in an unstressed -el almost always lose the -e-;
- Adjectives of German origin whose cannonical form ends in an unstressed -er retain the -e-;
- Adjectives which come from Latin or other Romance languages whose cannonical form ends in an unstressed -er, drop the -e-. But if the adjective comes from another language, then the -e- is retained.
- It is common to drop the -e- from adjectives whose canonical form ends in an unstressed -er preceded by a [[Orthography and Phonology|diphthong]].

Usage#

There are two ways in which adjectives are used - attributively and predicatively.

Predicative use is the simplest. It requires special [[Verbs]] such as "sein" or "werden" and is used to show or emphasise that something has or is obtaining a certain property. When used predicatevely, adjectives are always used in their canonical form and are not declined.

Adjectives are used attributively a lot more often to just show that something has a given property, without putting special emphasis on this fact. In this case, adjectives are placed before the noun but after any determiners such as [[Definiteness|articles]] or [[Pronouns]]. Additionally, almost all adjectives [[Adjectives#Declension|decline]] in order to agree in gender, [[Syntax|case]] and number with the [[Nouns|noun]] they pertain to. Depending on the situation, they use the different sets of endings described above.

The weak declension is used in the following cases:
- after the [[Definiteness|definite article]];
- after the [[Pronouns#Demonstrative Pronouns|demonstrative pronouns]] dies-, jen-, jeglich-, jed-, derselbe / dieselbe / dasselbe, derjenige / diejenige / dasjenige;
- after manch-, solch-, welch-;
- after alle;
- after beide.

The mixed declension endings are used in the following cases:
- after the [[Definiteness|indefinite articles]] ein- and kein-;
- after [[Pronouns#Possessive Pronouns|possessive pronouns]].

The strong declension endings are used in the following cases:
- when no [[Definiteness|article]] is used with the noun;
- when quantity is indicated by etwas, mehr; wenig-, viel-, mehrer-, einig-; a number greater than one, unless subject to the rules for weak and mixed declension; non-inflectable phrases like "ein paar" and "ein bisschen".

Comparative#

Adjectives which depict qualities that can have different intensity can build a comparative form to indicate a stronger intensity.

The formation of the comparative's base form is really simple - just add -(e)r to the adjective's canonical form. If the canonical form already ends in -e, only -r is added. Otherwise, -er is added.

The following adjectives also receive an [[Orthography and Phonology|Umlaut]] when forming the comparative base form: alt, grob, dumm, arg, arm, hart, kalt, krank, lang, nah, scharf, schwach, schwarz, stark, warm, groß, jung, klug and kurz. Additionally, the following adjectives may or may not receive an [[Orthography and Phonology|Umlaut]]: nass, bang, blass, glatt, karg, schmal, fromm, rot, krumm and gesund. There are no other adjectives which receive an [[Orthography and Phonology|Umlaut]].

The following adjectives have irregular comparatives:

Declension#

The comparative forms of adjectives are declined using the same endings and in the same situations as normal adjectives. However, the endings are added to the base comparative form. Since this form ends in -er, there are often cases when multiple instances of -er- are stringed together and this might sound a bit odd at first.

Superlative#

The following adjectives have irregular superlatives: