Adjective endings

An adjective that is used as an attribute to a noun has to agree with the noun it precedes. It depends on the following factors:

·         if the adjective is preceded by an article and which type of article it is (definite/ indefinite/ none)

·         the number, case and gender of the noun.

You will find three different tables below. The first one is for adjectives preceded by a definite article, the second table looks at adjectives preceded by an indefinite article, and the last table shows adjectives which are not preceded by any article.

Adjectives with definite articles

	masculine	feminine	neuter	Plural
Nominative	der alte Mann	die alte Frau	das alte Haus	die alten Häuser
Genitive	des alten Mannes	der alten Frau	des alten Hauses	der alten Häuser
Dative	dem alten Mann	der alten Frau	dem alten Haus	den alten Häusern
Accusative	den alten Mann	die alte Frau	das alte Haus	die alten Häuser

Adjectives with indefinite articles

	masculine	feminine	neuter	Plural
Nominative	ein alter Mann	eine alte Frau	ein altes Haus	alte Häuser
Genitive	eines alten Mannes	einer alten Frau	eines alten Hauses	alter Häuser
Dative	einem alten Mann	einer alten Frau	einem alten Haus	alten Häusern
Accusative	einen alten Mann	eine alte Frau	ein altes Haus	alte Häuser

If you use mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, ihr instead of ‘ein’ you also need to use the table above, except for the plural forms. Here you need to apply the plural endings of the first table (definite articles).

Example: meine alten Bücher (Nom.), meiner alten Bücher (Gen.), meinen alten Büchern (Dat.), meine alten Bücher (Accus.)

Adjectives with no article (these forms are very rare)

	masculine	feminine	neuter	Plural
Nominative	alter Mann	alte Frau	altes Haus	alte Häuser
Genitive	alten Mannes	alter Frau	alten Hauses	alter Häuser
Dative	altem Mann	alter Frau	altem Haus	alten Häusern
Accusative	alten Mann	alte Frau	altes Haus	alte Häuser

Tasks

1. Learn the tables for Adjectives with definite and indefinite articles.

2. Write six more tables using mein, dein, sein, unser, euer, ihr. Use the table named Adjectives with indefinite articles and the explanations given below it.