GCSE German

Adjective Endings

When an adjective appears after a noun, it does not have an ending:

Das Haus ist alt ... the house is old.
Das Auto ist rot ... the car is red.
Meine Schwester ist lustig ... my sister is funny.

When adjectives appear before a noun, however, it is much more troublesome! Look at the following table (click here to revise cases):

  Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nom der alte Mann die alte Frau das alte Haus die alten Hunde
Acc den alten Mann die alte Frau das alte Haus die alten Hunde
Gen des alten Mannes der alten Frau des alten Hauses die alten Hunde
Dat dem alten Mann der alten Frau dem alten Haus die alten Hunde

A bit daunting, isn't it?! Now look again...

There are actually only two possible adjective endings after "the" (der/die/das etc): -e and -en.

How can we remember? Look for short cuts!

All the plural adjectives end in -en. So do the dative and genitive cases!


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