Endings on adjectives

When an adjective precedes the noun it modifies, it takes an ending. The form of the ending depends upon several factors: the gender and case of the noun, and the type of word which precedes the adjective-noun combination.

Sie sehen das schöne Haus an.
Sie wollen ein schönes Haus haben.
Sie bauen schöne Häuser.

They look at the beautiful house.
They want to have a beautiful house.
They build beautiful houses.

Predicate adjectives do not take an ending.

Das Haus ist schön.

The house is beautiful.

Significant (strong) endings

Significant or "strong" adjective endings correspond to those of the der-word noun modifiers. These endings indicate the gender and case of the noun the adjective modifies.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive	-er -en -em -en	-e -e -er -er	-es -es -em -en	-e -e -en -er

For the genitive masculine and neuter, the adjective ending is -en rather than -es, because the noun carries a "strong" ending.

Strong endings are used when the word preceding the adjective carries no ending, or the adjective is unpreceded.

Sie trinken deutschen Wein.
Wir bauen ein neues Haus.
Mein kleiner Junge sitzt da.
Der Geruch gebratener Bratwurst war überall.

They are drinking German wine.
We are building a new house.
My little boy is sitting there.
The smell of grilled sausage was everywhere.

They are also used after the words viele, mehrere and einige.

Wir sahen viele junge Leute.
Ich kaufte einige gute Bücher.

We saw many young people.
I bought some good books.

Non-significant (weak) endings

Non-significant, or "weak" endings are either -e or -en. They indicate nothing about the gender or case of the noun the adjective modifies.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative Accusative Dative Genitive	-e -en -en -en	-e -e -en -en	-e -e -en -en	-en -en -en -en

These endings are used when the word preceding the adjective carries a significant ending.

Kaufen Sie dieses interessante Buch?
Es gibt keine grossen Kaufhäuser hier.
Welcher bekannte Mann hat das gesagt?
Mit solchen schlechten Mitarbeitern kann man nichts erreichen.

Are you buying this interesting book?
There are no large department stores here.
What famous man said that?
With such bad colleagues, you can't accomplish anything.