German Grammar * Review & Exercises

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives describe events (ein spannender Wettlauf [a suspenseful race]), persons (eine attraktive Frau [an attractive woman]), or objects (ein teures Haus [an expensive house]).

Adjectives are used in two ways: as predicate (following the noun they describe; they often seem to be adverbs) or as attribute (preceding the noun they describe):

• Predicate: Dieses Auto war sehr billig.
• Attributive: Ich habe dieses billige Auto letzte Woche gekauft.

Predicate adjectives do not have endings (just like adverbs), attributive ones do (unlike English, where adjectives do not have endings either way). Which endings do they take? There are several ways to explain this; here is one.

The adjective ending is determined by several factors:
A) Is the adjective predeced or not?
B) What are number, case, and gender of the noun the adjective describes?

A. Adjectives can be preceded or unpreceded. "preceded" means that they are preceded by either so-called "der"-words or so-called "ein"-words. "Unpreceded" is obvious: the adjective is not preceded by any of the following.

• "DER-words" are:
• definite articles (der, die, das,...: "the")
• demonstrative pronouns (dieser [this], jener [that one], welcher [which], solcher [such], ...)
• 'numerals' (such as alle [all], jeder [every], mancher [amny a/some], ...)
• "EIN-words" are:
• indefinite article (ein, eine...: "a")
• negative of indefinite article (kein, keine...: "no/not a")
• possessive articles (mein, dein, sein...: "my, your, his...")
• For either: all "words" in all their declination forms are included!

B. In addition, the ending may vary with number, case, and gender of the noun the adjective describes.

Examples (note the different endings):

1. Fragen Sie den jungen Mann dort!
2. Welcher nette Mensch hilft mir?
3. Sie hat sich einen grünen Rock gekauft.
4. Mein neues Auto hat viel gekostet.
5. Trinkst du gern deutschen Wein?
6. Frische Luft ist immer wunderbar.

Here is a detailed illustration, using similar phrases.

1. Er hat ein gebrauchtes Auto gekauft. (He bought a used car).
2. Das gebrauchte Auto war kaputt. (The used car was broken).
3. Gebrauchtes Auto zu verkaufen. (Used car for sale).

• Phrase 1 and 2 are preceded (1 by an "ein"-word, 2 by a "der"-word); phrase 3 is unpreceded.
• In phrase 1, "ein Auto" is the direct object=accusative case (and singular). Consult the charts following further down on this page. The chart in the center shows the endings after "ein"-words, and the "neuter, singular, accusative case" field contains "-es"--this is the correct ending.
• Similarly for phrase 2: here, "das Auto" is the subject=nominative case. The left chart shows endings after "der"-words, and the "neuter, singular, nominative" field contains "-e".
• Likewise for phrase 3: again, "Auto" is the subject=nominative case. The right chart shows endings for "unpreceded" adjectives, and the "neuter, singular, nominative" field contains "-es".

The Charts

The following charts contain the adjective endings as described above.

1. Altogether, there are only five different possibilites (for "preceded" situations): -en; -e; -er; -es; -em
2. The left and center charts show endings for "preceded" adjectives, the right one for "unpreceded" adjectives.
3. The left chart shows endings after "der"-words, the center chart those after "ein"-words. These two (the yellow areas) are sometimes referred to as "Oklahoma" charts: "inside" and "outside" of Oklahoma. Note that "outside" there is only one ending--"en", and "inside" there are only three different endings (one of which--"er"--shows only once, another--"es"--only twice).
4. The easy but treacherous way out. There are 48 fields altogether: 26 "-en"; 11 "-e"; 5 "-er"; 4 "-es"; 2 "- em". In other words: because -en occurs in more than half of the situations you could go with that if you just do not know what to do or if you don't want to bother... HOWEVER: as those instances where the other endings are used are more common (simply because nominative and accusative case are used a lot!). Therefore, this approach is somewhat problematic and may not be overly successful (to say the least.)
5. Note the bold fields--this is where the "problems" are.

"TYPE" ==> Case-- PERSON Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive

After "DER"-words M F N PL -e -e -e -en -en -e -e -en -en -en -en -en -en -en -en -en

After "EIN"-words M F N PL -er -e -es -en -en -e -es -en -en -en -en -en -en -en -en -en

Unpreceded M F N PL -er -e -es -e -en -e -es -e -em -er -em -en -en -er -en -er

In the following two charts the endings for "DER"- and "EIN"-word preceded adjectives are merged. The "EIN"-word endings are on the right side and/or in italics; as one can see, there are only THREE that are different between these two 'types'. The right chart is completely pared down. The ending for all that is not shown is -en.

Case-- PERSON M F N PL Nominative -e / -er -e -e / -es -en Accusative -en -e -e / -es -en Dative -en -en -en -en Genitive -en -en -en -en

M F N -e / -er -e -e / -es   -e -e / -es Right side/italics = endings after EIN-words; all others are -en

Attention

1. Differentiate articles (definite & indefinite, possessive), adjectives, etc.: they are different categories and, therefore, use different sets of endings. The respective ending may end up being identical.
2. Watch out for adverbs as well as for the `positive' plural of the indefinite article: there is nothing (i.e. no "ein"-word!--however, there are `kein' etc.!).
   = Das ist ein gut geschriebener Aufsatz. (This is a well written essay).
   "gut" is an adverb and not an adjective (and thus does not take an adjective ending, of course; adverbs in German do not have endings). Also, it is neither "der"- nor "ein"-word!

Alternative Erklärung/Beispiele

Of the five different possibilites (-en; -e; -er; -es; -em), "-en" and "-e" are considered "weak" endings, the others "strong". "Strong" endings are used after ein-words that do not have endings (masculine & neuter nominative and neuter accusative), and with unpreceded adjectives.

(In "unpreceded" situations, the adjective basically behaves like a demonstrative pronoun and takes the same endings [with one exception: genitive masculine and neuter]. In the example: dieses Auto ==> gebrauchtes Auto.)

EIN words with no endings:

1. Heute ist ein schöner Tag.
2. Mein neues Auto hat viel gekostet.
3. Kennen Sie ein deutsches Lied?

Unpreceded Adjectives:

1. Kaltes Bier schmeckt gut.
2. Frische Luft ist immer wunderbar.
3. Trinkst du gern deutschen Wein?
4. Wer ist der Mann mit rotem Haar?
5. Sie ist die Tochter reicher Leute.
6. Hier ist immer schönes Wetter.
7. Sie hilft gern alten Menschen.
8. Ich liebe das Aroma guten Kaffees.

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