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title, source, crawled
| title | source | crawled |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective Declensions - German for English SpeakersGerman for English Speakers | https://germanforenglishspeakers.com/nouns-articles/adjective-declensions | 2026-06-30 |
Adjective Declensions - German for English SpeakersGerman for English Speakers
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 netten Kinder
Accusative
den netten Mann
die nette Frau
das nette Kind
die netten Kinder
Dative
dem netten Mann
der netten Frau
dem netten Kind
den netten Kindern
Genitive
des netten Mannes
der netten Frau
des netten Kindes
der netten Kinder
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 kleiner Hund
meine kleine Katze
mein kleines Kaninchen
meine kleinen Vögel
Accusative
meinen kleinen Hund
meine kleine Katze
mein kleines Kaninchen
meine kleinen Vögel
Dative
meinem kleinen Hund
meiner kleinen Katze
meinem kleinen Kaninchen
meinen kleinen Vögeln
Genitive
meines kleinen Hundes
meiner kleinen Katze
meines kleinen Kaninchens
meiner kleinen Vögel
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
warme Brötchen
Accusative
heißen Kaffee
kalte Milch
frisches Brot
warme Brötchen
Dative
heißem Kaffee
kalter Milch
frischem Brot
warmen Brötchen
Genitive
heißen Kaffees
kalter Milch
frischen Brotes
warmer Brötchen