Easy German Adjektiv

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We'll learn a really nice hack for German Adjective Endings that'll you can use even as a beginner and that'll get you 60% right.
and welcome to another rendition of our German is Easy Learn German Online course. Our topic this time:
(part 2 is here)
Or in jargon: declension of adjectives.
Now, if a friend asked you what you did in German class and you said: “Oh nothing special… we just learned the declension of adjectives.”, that friend will surely tell others about the incredibly difficult things you have to deal with while learning German. Saying: “Oh nothing special… we just learned which endings to put to adjectives.” sounds by far less impressive. But technically it means the same and this is what we’ll learn in this miniseries.
Now you might ask: “Why should I learn it here? I can learn it somewhere else online for even free-erer than here?” To those I say, maybe that is true… you can find other offers out there, but oh… they might use lists and tables though. Taaaaaaaaybullllls. They are bad for the environment, increases global warming substantially and many a fish has died, trapped inside a table that was heedlessly thrown away. That’s why we at German-Is-Easy don’t believe in tables so we have come up with a system to explain the declension of adjectives that is 100 % table free.
German is Easy – sustainable, organic Grammar – ’cause Earth is worth it.
Oh my… so today we’ll first talk a bit about adjective endings and then I will give you the first of 3 steps to mastery of those things. German has cases. If you didn’t know that yet… we’ll you’re in for a surprise. If you don’t know yet what cases as a concept are, I highly recommend to read the article about that but it’s also fine if you don’t because you won’t need any knowledge on cases here… as crazy as it sounds. Anyways… cases in German affect mostly the article and the adjectives and not so much the noun itself and the effect is mostly (not exclusively) a change of the ending. That’s why it is NOT frisch, lecker and rot here although those are the forms the dictionary will give you.
The -en ending is extra and it is there because the whole object, the tasty, red apple, is in a case…. thank you case, by the way! I wouldn’t know what else to do with all my spare –ens. Now, we are learning German here so of course -en is not always the correct ending. The ending you have to put to an adjective depends on 3 things… first the gender of a noun, the type of preceding article and the case. Now let’s do a little math, shall we. We have 4 cases, 3 versions of articles… yeah 3 3… definite (the), indefinite (a) and none at all ( )…. and we have 3 genders plus the plural so it is actually kind of 4 “genders”. This equals a total of 443 = 48 possible combinations.
Now, German is not crazy enough to have a distinct ending for each combination… there are only 5 or so… let me list them real quick… e, en, er, es, em… yep, only 5. But still… learning the correct choice for 48 options doesn’t sound like too much fun So how can we go about this? The first way is study it using tables like these ones and concepts like weak declension and strong declension…. which by the way is something virtually no German has ever heard of.
This method works I guess but people will just doze off while you determine gender and case and then pick the correct one of 3 tables to choose the actual ending from. Remember … you need to know gender AND case… if you don’t know one, all the tables you have studied will not help you at all. So… learning the declension of adjectives the “old school” way is hard work. But is it worth it?… well not really because:
Adjective endings are NOT crucial for understanding.
A wrong adjective ending is a little bump at most. By no means can it ever alter meaning or hinder understanding. Sure, a German native will hear the mistake but no one would ever blame you for it. So.. another way to approach the whole adjective ending thing is to just ignore it altogether and wait for it to come over time. This is really not a bad idea. Adjective endings is something you need to feel… but maybe you need them for a test or ou are not in a German speaking environment or you are too impatient to wait till it sinks in and you want to be proactive.
Well, I think there is a third way to learn it… a sort of compromise between practice and theory and this is what you will learn here. Today we’ll look at the first of 3 steps. It is the easiest and yet the most crucialestest. Yes you read that right. The thing I am going to tell you gets you about 50% of the way there. The second steps adds another 30 and the final most difficult step makes up the last 20%. So here it is:
Like…. always! All the time… like with no… very very few exceptions. Whenever you put a descriptive word between an article and a noun you must add an e to it no matter what gender, case or article type… just do it. Add an e. No thought on gender or any of that crap… just add an e and move on.
This is not restricted to like real adjectives like big, small, fast, nice etc but also to verbs that are used as descriptive words.
And if you have more than one descriptive word, e ’em all.
And what if that would sound really stupid? Add e regardless. German has no shame there.
There are 2 reasons why adding an e is so crucial. See… there are the following possible endings -e, -er, -es, -en, -em. One of these five will be correct, no matter what combination of case-gender-acrticle we have. And all these endings do have at least an e. So we got already half the ending correct… but that is not what matters in fact… what matters is rhythm. By adding an e you in fact add an extra syllable. That is a huge change… like HUUUUUGE. A German native is so used to this extra syllable. He yearns for it.
This sounds real incredib wrong. Yeah… this is how it feels like. Not the fact that it i e is important… you could add o and it would still sound better than without.
The extra syllable just gives it a completely different flow and it sounds and feels sooo much more German. It is not totally correct but the flow is and that is really a big deal. With no extra e there you will have 2 emphasized syllables right after one another. Klein is emphasized because it is a description. If it didn’t matter we wouldn’t say it at all. Bier is also emphasized because this is the thing we are talking about after all. An extra syllable in between would be not emphasized and would allow for a nice musical stres-no-stress-pattern. So while maybe not the correct ending an extra e certainly sets your flow straight so add it. I really can’t stress that enough. You don’t need to think about cases, gender or anything… just get used to this extra syllable there and the rest will sink in much more easily. But this is not the only reason, why adding an e is so important. The second reason is that it is more often correct than a mere guess would be. Check this out
… I compared gute, guter, gutem, guten and gutes using Google ngram… It counts how often which form is used in books independent of the context … the result is clear… the simple e-ending is the most frequent with the -en in a close second, while the other endings occur way less often. Try other adjectives if you like… the results will be similar… maybe –en is more often at times, but –e and -en are by far the most frequent ones. So if we were to give guess we should certainly take one of those 2… and I find a simple -e the better choice because it is kind of the default….
These are all in first case and the e-ending is correct. Although it is the correct ending for all the plural forms, the en-ending is associated with case I would say… like if you just said schönen, people would probably think case rather than plural and also, I think people talk in singular more often… so bottom line: the –e-ending is the superior choice.
Now, given that you need NO thought at all to add an e, it is a pretty good pick I would say. But wait, there is more… how different can e and er or e and en sound? If you manage to mumble a bit when it comes to the ending then people will just understand whatever is correct… this is not possible without e. You can mumble all you want, if the rhythm isn’t correct no one would ever hear it correctly. Now before we wrap I want to tell you something that impressively shows the importance of that extra syllable. There are some descriptions, that are not an adjective per say. For example the phrase gut genug.
In English I can just take good enough and put it in front of the wine.
I am not so sure as to how right or wrong this is but I think it is passable at least. In official German this wouldn’t work because genug cannot get endings, which it would need to do if it were to be in front of a noun. However, every now and then in spoken German someone wants to do what I did in the English example… because expressing the same thing in correct German would call for a new side sentence and a lot of rearranging. To avoid this people sometimes simply take the whole description (gut genug) and put it in front of the noun. And now the question… what would a German say then:
Either one is grammatically wrong and yet one is wrong the right way and one is not and every German would agree with me. So…. the first version is what a German would say. Although genug is officially not changeable, Germans rather break that rule to make it fit with another rule: the adjective ending pattern… and I think at least partially it is because of the rhythm. I mean, it is wrong after all… it should make the synapses in which the grammar is stored fire cringe orders to all muscles… and yet because the rhythm is correct (and the declension) it is way better than just gut genug.
So… this was the first of 3 steps to the correct decl… to putting the correct endings to adjectives. Don’t think! Just add an e all the time. Do it until you doit automatically… If you have questions or suggestions, leave me a comment. I hope you liked it and see you next time.
new follow-up comments
new replies to my comments
Actually, there is a very simple rule, which could be explained very quickly. I unfortunately didn’t write down the source from which I learned the rule, but there it goes.
Adjectives always have the same ending as definite articles, except when the adjective is preceded by an article, and
1) the adjective is in the dative or genitive;
Both cases in which the ending “-en” is used.
Obs.: By same ending as definite articles, the rule means
der: “-er”, die: “-e”, das: “es”, den: “-en”, dem: “-em”
The rule is okay, but it doesn’t account for adjectives without ANY article. Like…
– Ich wasche das T-Shirt in kaltem Wasser.
But I don’t think it’s possible to make ONE rule and cover all endings :).
I found in the Duolingo forum three simple rules that have helped me. I am taking a course at Goethe and unfortunately I can’t get away with just adding an -e to every adjective or it’s humiliation in front of the whole class during homework review ;-) So I’ve been trying to figure out an easy to remember way to work out the right endings without a chart. I’ve been using these rules with some success, at least in writing:
Big three get an ‘e’ (der die das in the nominative; die das in the accusative)
Changin’ gets ‘en’ (when the article changes from its original form)
No ‘the’? Article takes over (with no article, or an ein word with no ending, use the correct der-word ending)
I haven’t figured out how to make the feminine indefinite articles in the nominative and accusative fit in a catchy way, so that’s where defaulting to the ‘e’ helps out. :-) I sometimes get tripped up by things like dative verbs and other articles like jeder, solcher, etc. But I feel like I have at least some kind of handle on it – the sight of a chart would make me feel like my brain was literally shutting down and I could not absorb any of it. I have to have a pattern to recognize or a formula to apply.
That’s kind of the same, actually :). IN part two, I basically give the second step of your system.
“big three get an e” is pretty catchy!!!
This rythm approach makes a lot of sense when you consider how language is acquired. Babies at 3 months will make some noise that is pretty much the same regardless of native language. But by around 9 months, still without ability to deliver any meaning, the sounds they make starts to be language specific (will fully be by 1 year old). Basically two components of the ‘noise’ they produce have shifted into language specific attributes: rythm and intonation. They make noises that don’t mean anything (yet), but an English baby will do some ‘te-tum te-tum’ like-sounds, French more like ‘rat-a-tat-a-tat’ and Chinese rather ‘sing-song’.
So, your approach to present the rythm an essential aspect to provide the right ‘feel’ for the language, even if not with the correct ending, provides to the native German (in your case) with the ‘proper’ German-specific rythm.
At least this is what your approach make me think of…
That comes from a book I read some time ago from David Crystal (A little Book of Language), linguage specialist in Wales.
Yeah, rhythm is completely overlooked in teaching. There’s a similar thing about not adding a “ge” to verbs that have a non-separable prefix. It’s mainly a rhythm thing.
I studied audio technique and musicology and I learned that humans are SUPER sensitive to rhythm and rhythmic patterns. Much more so than to pitch.
I didn’t know about the babies and language aquisition, though.
That was really interesting!! Thanks for adding that :)
That tip is so sweeet! On my way to fluency in German, here I go!
This is kind of life-changing. I have tried to learn adjective ending with tables – I tried several tables too, until found one that was fairly easy to work with, and even that was a struggle. Moreso because I live in the US and rarely have someone to speak with, so I constantly have to review the tables so I don’t forget. ANYWAY. I am totally going with your methods . I haven’t read the second and third article yet; I hope they don’t complicate things. ;-)
Oh they do :). But the second one is fairly ok and gets you about 80% of the way. The last one is the most complicated one…. so basically 80% of the work for 20% of perfection :)
finally I find a blog that explain about German grammar. thanks. Please explain about modals grammar too
Glad to hear you like it :).
What exactly do you mean by modals grammar? I’ve of course addressed them but it’s spread out over different sections of the course. If you let me know what you’re wondering about, I’ll point you in the right direction.
Brilliant! This deep understanding of what is practical and what is less wrong separates your lessons from all the others.
great article, success for the next :)
This must be the first article I see you telling me I can bend the rules in my favor. Hahaha.
Pretty awesome. I will be using the -e ending for now so my brain can rest a little from all these rules.
Thanks so much, now i can use adjectives in a proper way “somehow” haha, it would be much better than “the without endings adjectives i used to throw all the way ”
And thanks agian for giving me the chance to continue my German lerning using your blog materilas by giving me access without paying for a membership “cannot afford it right now” thanks to the donaters who made it possible.
Viiiieeelen Dank für eine tollE Website!! Makes me smile and laugh and speak better german. Gonna donate as soon as I come home and get access to Pay-Pal.
Excellent post. My wife speaks fluent Deutsch after many years at Uni and then living in Germany and, now that I have decided to have a go at the language, she tells me not to worry about these endings, just mumble an ‘e’ sound on the end – as you suggest here. After all, you can’t stand like a dummy during a conversation processing several matrixes of declinations through your head. Germans learn this stuff through repetition, they don’t even realise they are doing it, and in the end that’s the only way to really get it. Worrying about correct declension is fine when you are writing a job application (or doing an exam), but otherwise, who really cares?
I’m a beginner, and got 68,2% on that quiz after reading these three blog posts.
My main downfalls were:
– Forgot that “einen” is weird, so adjective is “en” (I was foolishly making it “er” for masculine.)
– Don’t know my genders for various nouns (der vs das)
– Sometimes thinking “das” was plain “that” rather than gender-carrying “the”.
– Sometimes not knowing when to use the right case (“für liebe Menschen” – I still don’t get that).
– Forgetting adjective spelling changes (“hohen” not “hochen”)
Danke für deinen schönen Artikelen! <– Probably all wrong, I'm just making it up.
Yeah… if you don’t know the gender of something you can be a grammar master all you want, it’ll always be a guess. I definitely think this whole ending stuff (articles and adjectives) is something to ease into and not worry too much about.
The one main thing is really the “e”… for the rhythm. Train that and leave the rest for later. So much effort for so little avail.
Either way… 68,2 is definitely a pass :)
As for your example… if you meant the plural then it would be
Plural adjective gets “en” unless there’s nothing in front of it. The “deine” gets the plural “e” for accusative articles… so basically like the same as feminine.
If you meant one article then it would be
– Danke für deinen schönen Artikel.
Accusative “-en” to “dein” because it is “der” and “-en” for the adjective because “den” is weird.
“Artikel” is both, singular and plural.
So in nomative case all adjectives, regardless of gender take an ‘e’ suffix?
No it’s not that simple… it depends on what articles precedes it. More on that in part 3. The point is, that an “e” is ALWAYS there… and maybe more. But work on the “e” first and then later you can fine tune :)
Okay, on a somewhat similiar, but mostly not, subject, if I’m talking about a Maskulin object, like ein Hund, or ein Spiegel do I refer to it as ‘er’ or ‘es’? And if its something like ‘das Mädchen’ or ‘das Wieb’ which is a person with a definite gender do I refer to them as ‘es’ or ‘sie’ and how do you actually think of gender as a native speaker, Does you think of it like we would ‘a’ vs ‘an’, not at all, or do you actually think of an object as he or she?
So generally we refer to whatever it is by gender.. so “der Spiegel” is definitely “er”.
– Das ist ein Spiegel. Es ist dreckig.
That would really confuse me unless the accent makes it clear that the person is not a native speaker. But in a newspaper… my god, I would be like “What the hell is es referring to… can’t be Spiegel cause that’d be er.”
Do I think that Spiegel is a man? I don’t know… not really. Men just happened to have a masculine gender and
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