In my last post I began to talk about forming simple sentences with adjectives in German. You learned that there is no need to decline adjectives in so-called “to be” sentences or, in other words, when you put the adjective after the noun.

Unfortunately, things are getting more complicated when you want to put the adjective before the noun, for example, saying something like “The nice man”, etc. In such sentence constructions you have to decline the adjective.

Adjectives can take different endings depending on the type of word that precedes them. Words that precede adjectives are called “limiting words”. These “limiting words” perform the task of expressing gender and grammatical function (case). Hence the ending of the following adjective does not need to reflect this information (because this job is already carried out by the preceding “limiting word”. Because of that, the adjective takes the so-called weak ending –e/-en.

Words that limit the ‘full’ declension of adjectives are so-called “der Wörter” (der words), which are articles and such. “Der Wörter” are:

der – the

dieser – this

jeder – each

jener – that

mancher – many a

solcher – such

welcher – which, what

 

The following table shows how to decline adjectives in German when a “der Wort” precedes the adjective.

 

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Case	“the little boy”	“the little cat”	“the little pig”	“the little pigs”
Nom.	der kleine Junge	die kleine Katze	das kleine Schwein	die kleinen Schweine
Acc.	den kleinen Jungen	die kleine Katze	das kleine Schwein	die kleinen Schweine
Dat.	dem kleinen Jungen	der kleinen Katze	dem kleinen Schwein	den kleinen Schweinen
Gen.	des kleinen Jungen	der kleinen Katze	des kleinen Schweins	der kleinen Schweine

 

As you can see, all adjectives following a der word in the dative and genitive case or in the plural take the ending –en. You can also see that you have to decline the noun according to gender and case.

 

Exercise: Now it’s time again to practice what you have just learned. Fill in the blanks.

1. Die hübsch___ Frau küsst den klug___ Mann. (The pretty woman is kissing the smart man.) – die Frau = feminine, nominative; den Mann = masculine, accusative

2. Das bunt__ Spielzeug gehört dem klein___ Jungen. (The colorful toy belongs to the little boy.) das Spielzeug = neuter, nominative; dem Jungen = masculine, dative

3. Das weinend___ Kind gehört der fröhlich__ Frau. (The crying child belongs to the cheerful woman.) – das Kind = neuter, nominative; der Frau = feminine, dative

4. Die laut__ Musik kommt aus dem groß__ Zimmer. (The loud music comes from the large room.) – die Musik = feminine, nominative; dem Zimmer = neuter, dative

5. Der heiß__ Kaffee steht in der klein__ Küche. (The hot coffee is in the small kitchen.) – der Kaffee = masculine, nominative; der Küche = feminine, dative

 

Key:

1. Die hüsche Frau küsste den klugen Mann.

2. Das bunte Spielzeug gehört dem Jungen.

3. Das weinende Kind gehört der fröhlichen Frau.

4. Die laute Musik kommt aus dem großen Zimmer.

5. Der heiße Kaffee steht in der kleinen Küche.