Adjektive Endungenvon

Frau Templeton

When does an adjective need an ending?

• Only adjectives that precede a noun which they modify -- MUST have an ending in German

Das Haus ist schön.

Das ist ein schönes Haus.

Keep in mind!

• Something -- either an article (der/ein/dieser/etc.) or the adjective itself must show what gender the noun is.

• Some articles show that a noun has changed from its original nominative case, others do not.

Ask yourself these questions, when determining the

adjective ending!

Question 1

• Does the adjective have an article in front of it? – If NO (if there is no article): add the ending

that would occur on a der-word for that noun.

– If YES (if there is an article already), move on to question 2.

Ich trinke kalten Kaffee gern.

(There is no article, but it would be den Kaffee, so we add -en to kalt)

Question 2

• Is the article in the standard, unchanged form? – If NO (if the article is different from its original

form), add -en. – If YES (if the article is in its original form),

move on to question 3.

Ich kenne einen guten Mann.

(einen, masculine accusative, has changed from the original ein)

Question 3

• Is the noun singular? – If NO (if the noun is plural), add -en. – If YES (if the noun is singular), move on to

question 4.

Ich sehe die kleinen Kinder

(die, plural accusative, is in its original form, but it is plural, so an -en is added to jung)

Question 4

• Does the article show gender?– If NO (if the article is ein/dein/etc): add -er for

masculine nouns, -es for neuter nouns. – If YES (if the article already shows the

gender): add -e.

Das ist ein gutes Buch.

(something needs to show the neuter gender of Buch -- since ein does not show it, -es is added to gut) 

Schritt für Schritt

Achtung!

• UNSER Remember that the -er in unser is part of the article not an ending.

Das ist unser Hund.

Das ist der Hund unserer alten Oma.

Achtung!

• Articles in German include:

all der/die/das words all ein-words

all dieser, jeder, mancher, solcher and welcher words alle and beide

Achtung!

• VIELE (many), EINIGE (a few, some), MEHRERE (several), WENIGE (few, not many) are not articles – They are simply another adjective and get an adjective ending

Die vielen Kinder füttern mehrere Vögel.

Achtung!

• When there is more than one adjective modifying the same noun each adjective acts independently and takes the appropriate ending. Thus all adjectives in a string will have the same endings.

Der alte, kleine Mann geht nur sehr langsam über die Straße.

Achtung!

• Remember to check if the noun is plural. If it is, and it has any article before it, the ending will be -en. Plural nouns without an article, following Question 1, will have -e or -en depending on their case.

Helpful Hints

• Dative and Genetive adjective endings always –en

• If the article ends in –en the adjective will end in –en

• If the article shows gender the adjective will end in -e

Übung macht den Meister

1. Deutsch_____ Brot (n) schmeckt immer gut. 2. Erik ist ein gut______ Freund (m) von mir.

3. Ich habe diese lustig_____ Geschichte (f) verstanden.  

4. Jener nett____ Mann (m) ist sehr fleißig.

5. Wo ist euer neu______ Auto (n)?

6. Er hat einige alt_____ Kassetten (pl) zu Hause.

7. Haben Sie Ihr schön_____ Bild (n) dabei? 8. Im Zimmer habe ich laut_____ Musik (f) gehört.

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Würfelspiel