Other “article-like” words such as dieser, jener, jeder, mancher, welcher, and solcher all decline following the table above. Nominative der das die die Accusative den das die die Dative dem dem der den Genitive des des der der Compare the two tables and notice the similarities. Strong endings are mostly identical with the definite article, minus the “d-.” In some cases, they use the last two letters and in others the final single letter. Strong forms are used with indefinite articles (“a/an” in English) or when there is no determiner.

There are both strong and weak forms of adjectives. The four cases are: nominative (usually the subject of the sentence), accusative (usually the object), dative (usually the indirect object), and genitive (denotes a possession or close association like “X of someone”). These cases help distinguish the relationship the noun has to the action the verb is describing. German nouns have a certain “case,” which you can spot based on the definite article (“the” in English) they use. CaseĪfter you’ve determined the gender of the noun, you need to think about the case. The specific gender of a noun just needs to be memorized, but it will start to seem automatic with time! Luckily, adjectives use the same form for all three plural forms of gender, though it does vary depending on the type of determiner. German has three different grammatical “genders” for a noun: masculine, feminine, and neuter (neutral). While this is also important in German, there are a few other properties of the noun that you need to consider before selecting the correct ending. In English, the only feature of the noun that is obvious is the plurality whether we’re talking about one single object (cat) or multiple (cat s). Remember that a “definite” article is used to pick out a specific thing, something definitive, while an “indefinite” article is used to talk about a “swappable” noun, something which could be swapped for another of the same type ( an apple versus the apple).

The easiest way to know which ending is appropriate is to first memorize the patterns (shown in tables below) then think of the definite article that accompanies the noun and use that to help select which ending goes along with it. While an adjective in English stays the same no matter the plurality or role of the noun, German adjectives need to be adjusted with different endings to indicate the gender, plurality, and case of the noun. This alignment, which is a type of inflection (like verbs undergo), is called declension. While an adjective’s job in a sentence is already to make things more precise, descriptive, or colorful, German adjectives really go the extra mile! German adjectives get extra precise about their forms by aligning in several ways with the noun they describe.

German adjective endings