Declension of adjectives in German examples. Endings of adjectives. Only singular number
A German adjective is a part of speech that expresses a characteristic of an object, answering Welcher's questions? Welche?Welches? (which? which? which? which?).
Declension of adjectives
An adjective changes when it is a modifier of a noun. The type of declension depends on the type of article and pronoun. Declension can be of three types: weak, strong, mixed. Through the declension of an adjective, you can determine the case, number and gender of a noun. The endings in the declension of an adjective can be expressive or neutral. An adjective receives a neutral ending if the endings of the pronoun or article are expressive and vice versa. That is, in the “article – adjective – noun” scheme there can be only one expressive ending.
1. Strong declension (no article)
The strong declension is used when a noun does not have an article or pronoun. In this case, the adjective plays the role of the definite article and takes on its ending.
2. Weak declension (definite article)
The weak inflection of an adjective is used with the definite article or with the pronouns dieser (he), jener (he), jeder (every), solcher (such), welcher (which), mancher (some), which have the inflection of the definite article. If the form of the article is initial, the ending of the adjective is neutral (-e), if the form of the article is changed, the ending is expressive (-en).
3. Mixed declension (indefinite article)
The adjective will have a mixed declension if the indefinite article is used, the pronoun kein (no one, no one) or the possessive pronouns mein (my), dein (your), unser (our), euer (your) are used. The mixed declension is used only with a singular number.
In the plural, there are only two types of declension for adjectives: strong and weak. If there are several adjectives with a noun, they receive the same declension. The rule for declension of adjectives applies to ordinal numbers and participles.
DEGREES OF COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES
Qualitative adjectives and adverbs have three degrees of comparison: positive (der Positiv), comparative (der Komparativ) and superlative (der Superlativ).
Comparative degree = positive degree + suffix –er
Superlative = positive degree + suffix -(e)st
For example: positive degree - schön (beautiful), comparative degree - schöner (beautiful), superlative degree - Der Schönste (the most beautiful).
Most adjectives form comparative degrees without an umlaut. Monosyllabic comparative and superlative adjectives that have the root vowels a, o, u form a degree of comparison with umlaut. Such adjectives include: alt (old), lang (long), grob (rough), arm (poor), scharf (sharp), dumm (stupid), hart (hard), schwach (weak), jung (young), kalt (cold), stark (strong), kurz (short), krank (sick), warm (warm). Adjectives of the positive and comparative degrees are used in short form to denote the nominal part of the predicate, adjectives of the superlative degree - both in short and inflected forms. The comparative degree is characterized by both definite and indefinite articles, and the superlative degree is characterized by the definite article.
For some reason, the declension of adjectives is considered a difficult topic. “There are so many endings...” - and the German language is hopelessly compromised. Have you ever encountered Russian case endings? Well, form the instrumental case form from the words “your two clean sleeves”! What? Did you realize it right away? Exactly, “with your two clean sleeves”... Children, by the way, get confused!
Declension, inflection, is an ancient and venerable feature of Indo-European languages. The English language has actually lost its declension, but German retains what existed in all ancient Germanic languages: the declension of adjectives in two types - strong And weak.
By strong declination an adjective without an article changes, for example:
| units m.r. | units w.r. | units s.r. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| im.p. | gut er Freund | gut e Idea | gut es Buch |
| kind.p. | gut en Freundes | gut er Idea | gut en Buches |
| dat.p. | gut em Freund | gut er Idea | gut em Buch |
| wine.p. | gut en Freund | gut e Idea | gut es Buch |
You can see that the basis of the declination here is the same long-known declination of the definite article: der...dem-den, die-der-der-die, das...dem-das. But you’ll have to say goodbye to the genitive case form “des” in the declension of adjectives: in the genitive case singular. masculine and neuter adjectives with any type of declension have an ending -en.
Why does the adjective behave this way? Because there are four cases in the German language, and the language requires them to be distinguished. If an adjective appears without an article, it is forced to take on this function and convey the corresponding case with its endings. This is a strong declination.
What if the adjective appears with an article? Well, let's start with the definite article. Look what happens:
| der gut e Freund | die gut e Idea | das gut e Buch |
| des gut en Freundes | der gut en Idea | des gut en Buches |
| dem gut en Freund | der gut en Idea | dem gut en Buch |
| den gut en Freund | die gut e Idea | das gut e Buch |
Yes, this is just some kind of resort!.. Behind the article, the adjective feels like behind a stone wall and operates with only two endings: -e And -en. Why bother if the article (or demonstrative pronoun) quite definitely denotes cases? That's what it is weak declination adjective
You may ask: why then does the adjective in the weak form have no ending? -en in all cases? The point is that you still need to distinguish between the singular and the plural. Singular (imp.) - der gut e Freund, plural - die gut en Freunde; in the only - die gut e Idee, plural - die gut en Idean. By the way, according to the weak declension, adjectives of all three genders and in all cases have the same ending in the plural: -en. Now you will see this for yourself in the tables.
An adjective with a definite article is translated as “this/that”, etc. - die gute Idee - this is a good idea das gute Buch - this is a good book etc.
In addition to strong and weak, there is also a mixed declination (see table below). In fact, this just means the declension of singular adjectives with the indefinite article ein, as well as the possessive pronouns mein, dein, etc. and the negation of kein. In indirect cases we will see a universal weak ending there -en, because case will be indicated by the article forms eines, einem, einen. And in the singular, the article ein can introduce a noun of both masculine and neuter gender - and therefore a distinction needs to be made here using the endings of the adjective: ein gut er Freund, but ein gut es Haus. And of course, eine gute Idee. But, I repeat, mixed declension is only relevant for the singular. This is explained simply: in the plural there is no indefinite article.
Strong declination
Singular. Adjective without article
adjective after words: etwas - A little, viel - a lot of, wenig - few, genug - enough; also after manch - other, some, welch - Which (if they perform without endings)
| m.r. | w.r. | s.r. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| im.p. | schön er Tag | schön e Frau | schön es Haus |
| kind.p. | schön en Tags | schön er Frau | schön en Houses |
| dat.p. | schön em Tag | schön er Frau | schön em Haus |
| wine.p. | schön en Tag | schön e Frau | schön es Haus |
Plural. Adjective without article
adjective after numerals: zwei - two, drei - three; also after the words viele - many, einige - some, mehrere - some, several, wenige - few
| m.r. | w.r. | s.r. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| im.p. | schön e Tage | schön e Frauen | schön e Hauser |
| kind.p. | schön er Tage | schön er Frauen | schön er Hauser |
| dat.p. | schön en Tagen | schön en Frauen | schön en Hausern |
| wine.p. | schön e Tage | schön e Frauen | schön e Hauser |
Weak declination
Singular. Adjective with definite article
dieser - this, jener - That, jeder - every, solcher - such, welcher - Which, mancher - some, some, some
| m.r. | w.r. | s.r. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| im.p. | der Schön e Tag | die schön e Frau | das Schön e Haus |
| kind.p. | des Schon en Tags | der Schön en Frau | des Schon en Houses |
| dat.p. | dem schön en Tag | der Schön en Frau | dem schön en Haus |
| wine.p. | den schön en Tag | die schön e Frau | das Schön e Haus |
Plural. Adjective with definite article
adjective after pronouns: meine - my, deine - yours etc; after pronouns alle - All, beide - both, solche - such, welche - which, keine - none
| m.r. | w.r. | s.r. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| im.p. | die schön en Tage/Frauen/Häuser | ||
| kind.p. | der Schön en Tage/Frauen/Häuser | ||
| dat.p. | den schön en Tagen/Frauen/Häusern | ||
| wine.p. | die schön en Tage/Frauen/Häuser | ||
Mixed declension
Only singular number
adjective with indefinite article ein; also with possessive pronouns: mein, dein and negation kein
| m.r. | w.r. | s.r. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| im.p. | ein schön er Tag | eine schön e Frau | ein schön es Haus |
| kind.p. | eines schön en Tags | einer schön en Frau | eines schön en Houses |
| dat.p. | einem schön en Tag | einer schön en Frau | einem schön en Haus |
| wine.p. | einen schön en Tag | eine schön e Frau | ein schön es Haus |
Now a logical question: how to remember all these pronominal “viele-einige...” on the one hand, and “alle-beide...” on the other? The demonstrative pronoun dieser is so similar to the definite article der that they are easily combined into one group. It would be good to learn the rest by heart, but first you should keep in mind: viele schön e Tage (strong declination) - but alle schön en Tage (weak declination).
The pronouns viele and alle are used most often. Likewise, we often have to say meine, deine, Ihre (Freunde, Bücher, etc.). Therefore, be sure to remember: meine gut en Freunde.
In German the form viele - many is used where in Russian we are accustomed to seeing the adverb “many”. Wed:
- Da sind viele Studenten. - There are a lot of students there.
- Er hat viele probleme. - He has a lot of problems.
The most difficult thing in learning any language is the process of memorizing new information, in particular words, rules, endings, suffixes. Since the Russian language is very different from German, beginners encounter many difficulties in the learning process at first. They are mostly connected with this difference - we are accustomed from birth to using our own alphabet, words, and grammar. Therefore, at the very beginning, it is important to properly organize how you will master new material.
Getting the new topic right
Each new topic is given to a beginner in the form of a text, and upon first acquaintance with it, as a rule, uncertainty arises - will I be able to master this? After reading a new topic for the first time, for a beginner to successfully analyze it, you can highlight the key points. In the topic “Declination of adjectives” these are endings that change in a word depending on what case the word is in and what gender and number it belongs to - masculine, feminine, neuter and singular or plural.
After this, parts of the topic that need to be learned by heart will be useful to rewrite in the form of tables and diagrams - this way they will be remembered most quickly. You can draw an empty table and fill it out from memory, and then test yourself by comparing it with what is written in the topic.
We teach endings in tables
The declension of adjectives depends on what type of article is used. There are three in total:
- definite article;
- indefinite article;
- adjectives without articles.
In order to remember how adjectives are declined by case, gender and number, you need to learn the endings. How to identify them? As in Russian, in German the ending is a variable part of the word that is added to the root. This can be clearly seen in the tables.
Declension of adjectives with the definite article
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter gender | Plural |
| Nominative | der groß e Wald | die schön e Frau | das warm e Zimmer | die neu en Bucher |
| Genitiv | des groß en Waldes | der schön en Frau | des warm en Zimmers | der neu en Bucher |
| Dativ | dem groß en Wald | der schön en Frau | dem warm en Zimmer | den neu en Buchern |
| Akkusativ | den groß en Wald | die schön e Frau | das warm e Zimmer | die neu en Bucher |
Declension of adjectives with the indefinite article
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter gender |
| Nominative | ein groß er Wald | eine schön e Frau | ein warm es Zimmer |
| Genitiv | eines groß en Waldes | einer schön en Frau | eines warm en Zimmers |
| Dativ | einem groß en Wald | einer schön en Frau | einem warm en Zimmer |
| Akkusativ | einen groß en Wald | eine schön e Frau | ein warm es Zimmer |
Declension of adjectives without articles
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter gender | Plural |
| Nominative | groß er Wald | schön e Frau | warm es Zimmer | neu e Bucher |
| Genitiv | groß en Wald es | schön er Frau | warm en Zimmer s | neu er Bucher |
| Dativ | groß em Wald | schön er Frau | warm em Zimmer | neu en Bucher |
| Akkusativ | groß en Wald | schön e Frau | warm es Zimmer | neu e Bucher |
Exercises. Only with exercises. Lots of exercises. No other way. Without practice, no other methods will allow you to remember the three types of declension and in what cases to use one or the other. And in order to somehow help you understand all this confusion with the three types of declensions, I present to your attention my fairy tale, which was once published on the de-online website and which was highly appreciated by people. I hope that it will help you too.
In the German Kingdom, in the German State, there lived Adjectives. However, they still live to this day... but closer to the point.
German adjectives live in three mini-states: the “Weak Declension” state, the “Strong Declension” state and the “Mixed Declension” state.
The State of “Weak Declination” is a country of the humiliated and insulted, since President Derdidas (in his singular and unique), Prime Ministers Myndine and Cain (plural) and their numerous assistants, as soon as they can, in every possible way infringe on the rights of adjectives and do not give them any privileges. Adjectives in this state would like to indicate the gender, number and case of a noun, but they cannot do this, since Derdidas took away this right from them and does everything for them, and Prime Ministers Maindain and Cain help him in this. The only thing that the President of the Weak Declension deigned to give to adjectives are two endings: “-e” in all genders of the nominative with the feminine and neuter accusative and “-en” in all other numbers, genders and cases. We can say that Derdidas did the adjectives a favor, threw a bone to the dog so that the adjectives would not die of hunger and go crazy from idleness. And they (that is, adjectives) are completely passively content with what they have and, being absolutely weak and weak-willed, do not even try to protest.
The State of “Strong Declension” is a country of free and happy adjectives. This is communism, since adjectives in this country have no authority, adjectives live freely, on their own, and fully enjoy the right to indicate the gender, number and case of a noun without any articles, pronouns and negations. But it should be noted that they still secretly glance at the neighboring Weak Declension and steal endings from Derdidas. And so that he does not guess anything and does not bring down his anger on them, in the masculine and neuter genitive, instead of “-es” (des), they take the neutral ending “-en”, passing the ending “-es” to the front nouns. And they live quietly and peacefully.
The State of “Mixed Declension” is a country of chaos and confusion. This is anarchy and lawlessness, since adjectives from this country in a completely shameless manner, being unable to come up with something of their own, steal endings from both the strong and weak declension. In the singular, in all genders of the nominative with the feminine and neuter gender of the accusative, they decided to decline strongly, and in all other genders and cases, weakly. That is, in the singular genitive, dative and masculine accusative, they are simply lazy, giving the privilege of declension to indefinite articles, possessive pronouns and the negation of “kein”. But in the plural, the indefinite article disappears (it hates the plural and is not declined in it at all), and adjectives have to take on the responsibility of indicating the gender, number and case of the noun. However, they are often helped here by possessive pronouns and the negation “kein”. In general, everything is mixed up in this kingdom...
The endings (finals) of adjectives (adj.) in German, which are added during declension (cl.), depend on a number of points, namely,
- with which article (art.) is a German noun (noun) used in speech, accompanied by the adj. – with indefinite, with definite or with zero,
- in what number is this noun used?
- in which case is this noun used?
- what genus is the thing characterized by the adj. noun
Adjective endings in German I
| Number |
Singular |
|||||
| Genus |
Feminine |
Neutrum |
Maskulinum |
|||
| Article | undefined | def. | undefined | def. | undefined | def. |
| Translation | gray blouse | new trail | old track | left leg | wise old man | right foot |
| No. | eine graue Bluse | die neue Spur | ein altes Gleis | das link Bein | ein weiser Greis | der rechte Fuss |
| Gen. | einer grauen Bluse | der neuen Spur | eines alten Gleises | des Linken Beines | eines weisen Greises | des rechten Fusses |
| Dat. | einer grauen Bluse | der neuen Spur | einem alten Gleis | dem linken Bein | einem weisen Greis | dem rechten Fuss |
| Akk. | eine graue Bluse | die neue Spur | ein altes Gleis | das link Bein | einen weisen Greis | den rechten Fuss |
Adjective endings in German II
|
Singular |
Plural |
||||
| Art. | zero Femin. | null Neutr. | null Mask. | null | def. |
| No. | gray blue | altes Gleis | Weiser Greis | graue Blusenalte Gleise weise Greise |
die neuen Spurendie linken Beine die rechten Fusse |
| Gen. | grauer Bluse | Alten Gleises | Weisen Greises | grauer Blusenalter Gleise Weiser Greise |
der neuen Spurender linken Beine der rechten Fusse |
| Dat. | grauer Bluse | altem Gleis | Weisem Greis | grauen Blusenalten Gleisen weisen Greisen | den neuen Spurenden linken Beinen den rechten Fussen |
| Akk. | gray blue | altes Gleis | Weisen Greis | graue Blusenalte Gleise weise Greise | die neuen Spurendie linken Beine die rechten Fusse |
Note to the table:
- gray background = weak sk.
- reddish background = strong darkening
- white background = mixed color
Weak declination
When using a noun with a certain art. The adjective that defines a given noun acquires the ending. according to the weak type. This type of storage characterized by the presence of only two endings – “-e” and “-en”. Finish “-e” is acquired only by adj. in Singular Nominativ (all three genders) and in Akkusativ (neuter and feminine) (see examples above in gray). Adj. will also purchase final by weak type, if a certain art. replace pronouns (places), which clearly convey the grammatical categories of the noun. To such places. include indicative places. this one is dieser, this one is solcher, that one is jener, each one is jeder, some is mancher, that one is derjenige, the same one is derselbe, interrogative place. which - welcher (plus all corresponding feminine and neuter places, as well as plurals from the named groups); pronouns both – beide, all – alle.
Strong declination
When using a noun with a zero art. (and also in the absence of any replacing this art. pronouns) related to the noun adj. acquires final according to the strong type, that is, in all cases it takes the final form. definite articles (except neuter and masculine in Genitiv - see examples in the tables above on a reddish background). Adjectives are declined according to the same type if, when defining nouns, they occupy a place after cardinal numerals (for example, ten - neun, six - sechs, etc.) and places. many - viele, various, some - mehrere, some - wenige, all - sämtliche, etc.
Mixed declension
After unspecified art. (see examples in the table above on a white background), places. kein and possessive pronouns adj. They tend to be mixed, combining the characteristics of both the weak and the strong. Its peculiarity compared to the other two types of cl. described above. is that mixed cl. is present only in the singular. Plural adjectives following possessives. and after keine, acquire the same endings as after definite articles.