Adjectives
Declension
In most situations, adjectives in German must agree in gender, case and number with the 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 diphthong.
Example: Adjectives with -el and -er
dunkel → dunkl- → ein dunkles Zimmer, im dunklen Wald, die dunkle Wand
respektabel → respektabl- → eine respektable Entscheidung
penibel → penibl- → diese penible Affäre
finster → ein finsterer Wald, das finstere Gesicht
makaber → makabr- → ein makabrer Fund
illuster → illustr- → diese illustre Gesellschaft
koscher → eine koschere Speise
clever → eine clevere Lösung
teuer → teur- → ein teurer Tisch, die teure Kleidung, dieses teuren Kleides
sauer → saur- → saure Gurken
| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | -e | -en | ||
| Genitive | -en | |||
| Dative | ||||
| Accusative | -en | -e | ||
Example: Weak Declension Endings
Weak Declension of dunkel Singular Plural Masculine Feminine Neuter Nominative dunkle dunklen Genitive dunklen Dative Accusative dunklen dunkle
| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | -er | -e | -es | -en |
| Genitive | -en | |||
| Dative | ||||
| Accusative | -en | -e | -es | |
Example: Mixed Declension Endings
Mixed Declension of dunkel Singular Plural Masculine Feminine Neuter Nominative dunkler dunkle dunkles dunklen Genitive dunklen Dative Accusative dunklen dunkle dunkles
| Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | ||
| Nominative | -er | -e | -es | -e |
| Genitive | -en | -er | -en | -er |
| Dative | -em | -er | -em | -en |
| Accusative | -en | -e | -es | -e |
Example: Strong Declension Endings
Strong Declension of "dunkel" Singular Plural Masculine Feminine Neuter Nominative dunkler dunkle dunkles dunkle Genitive dunklen dunkler dunklen dunkler Dative dunklem dunkler dunklem dunklen Accusative dunklen dunkle dunkles dunkle
Warning: Declension of "hoch"
When declining the adjective “hoch” (“high”, “tall”), the endings are added to hoh- and not to hoch.
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.
Example: Predicative Adjective Use
Dieses Haus ist schön. - This house is beautiful.
Das Wasser wird kalt. - The water is getting cold.
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 articles or Pronouns. Additionally, almost all adjectives decline in order to agree in gender, case and number with the 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 definite article;
- after the demonstrative pronouns dies-, jen-, jeglich-, jed-, derselbe / dieselbe / dasselbe, derjenige / diejenige / dasjenige;
- after manch-, solch-, welch-;
- after alle;
- after beide.
Example: Attributive Adjectives and Weak Declension
Der kleine Hund spielt im Garten. - The small dog is playing in the garden.
An diesem heiligen Tag wurde Jesus auf die Welt gebracht. - Jesus was born on this holy day.
Jener hohe Berg is mit Schnee bedeckt. - That high mountain (over there) is covered with snow.
Man sollte jegliches mögliche Hindernis beachten. - Any possible complication should be taken into account.
Wir haben denselben alten Film gesehen. - We watched the same old movie.
Manche dummen Menschen kann man nicht retten. - Some stupid people cannot be saved.
Solches unangemessene Verhalten erwartete ich nicht von dir. - I did not expect such inappropriate behaviour from you.
Welches blaue Auto hast du gekauft? - Which blue car did you buy?
Alle neuen Schüler mussten sich vorstellen. - All new students had to introduce themselves.
Beide kleinen Kätzchen schlafen im Körbchen. - The two small kittens are sleeping in the basket.
The mixed declension endings are used in the following cases:
- after the indefinite articles ein- and kein-;
- after possessive pronouns.
Example: Attributive Adjectives and Mixed Declension
Ich habe ein teures Auto gekauft. - I bought a new car.
Er hat keine guten Ideen. - He has no good ideas.
Dieses Kleid gehört meiner jungen Schwester. - This dress belongs to my little sister.
The strong declension endings are used in the following cases:
- when no 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”.
Example: Attributive Adjectives and Strong Declension
Kaltes Wasser ist erfrischend. - Cold water is refreshing.
Dynamischen Schrittes durchquerte er den Raum. - He crossed the room hastily.
Wenige interessierte Leute kamen. - Few interested people came.
Ich habe schon viele reiche Menschen kennengelernt. - I already know many rich people.
Der Tee braucht mehr heißes Wasser. - The tee needs more hot water.
Es gab mehrere gute Gründe dafür. - There were several good reasons for this.
Wir haben einige kleine Probleme. - We have some small problems.
Sie besitzt drei sehr schnelle Autos. - She owns three very fast cars.
Ein bisschen unerwartetes Glück schadet nie. - A little bit of unexpected luck never hurt anybody.
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.
Example: Building the Comparative
dünn → dünner
müde → müder
dunkel → dunkler
The following adjectives also receive an 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 Umlaut: nass, bang, blass, glatt, karg, schmal, fromm, rot, krumm and gesund. There are no other adjectives which receive an Umlaut.
Example: Comparatives with Umlaut
alt - älter, grob - gröber, dumm - dümmer, arg - ärger, arm - ärmer, hart - härter, kalt - kälter, krank - kränker, lang - länger, nah - näher, scharf - schärfer, schwach - schwächer, schwarz - schwärzer, stark - stärker, warm - wärmer, groß - größer, jung - jünger, klug - klüger, kurz - kürzer
nass - nasser / nässer, bang - banger / bänger, blass - blasser / blässer, glatt - glatter / glätter, karg - karger / kärger, schmal - schmaler / schmäler, fromm - frommer / frömmer, rot - roter / röter, krumm - krummer / krümmer, gesund - gesunder / gesünder
The following adjectives have irregular comparatives:
| Adjective | Comparative |
|---|---|
| gut | besser |
| hoch | höher |
| viel | mehr |
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.
Example: Declension of Comparatives
die schöne Frau - die schönere Frau
ein starker Mann - ein starkerer Mann
ein heiterer Tag - ein heitererer Tag
dem klugen Mädchen - dem klügeren Mädchen
Superlative
The following adjectives have irregular superlatives:
| Adjective | Superlative |
|---|---|
| gut | best |
| hoch | höchst |
| viel | meist |