German Adjective Endings: Simple Rules, Charts, and Practice

You need to think about adjective endings every time you put an adjective in front of a noun. This happens when you describe what you want to buy, such as einen roten Pullover (a red sweater), where you live, such as in einer kleinen Stadt (in a small town), or what you watched, such as ein guter Film (a good film).

The endings follow a few short rules, and all of them come from one idea: something before the noun must show its gender and case. This post covers Nominativ, Akkusativ, and Dativ, with a chart for each situation. The Genitiv is a later topic and is not covered here.

Try it first

Each sentence has an adjective with a missing ending. Choose one of the five endings: -e, -en, -er, -es, or -em.

After each answer, you will see why the ending is correct: the gender of the noun, the case, and the rule for the ending. It is fine to guess, because the rest of this post explains every rule.

Here is the system behind the answers.

When does an adjective take an ending?

• An adjective takes an ending only before a noun.
• After sein (to be), the adjective has no ending.

Compare these two sentences:

• Der Hund ist klein. (The dog is small.)
• der kleine Hund (the small dog)

In the first sentence, klein (small) comes after the noun, so it has no ending. In the second, it comes before Hund (dog), so it needs -e.

The same pattern applies to Das Haus ist alt. (The house is old.) and das alte Haus (the old house), or Die Jacke ist blau. (The jacket is blue.) and die blaue Jacke (the blue jacket).

German grammar has a name for each place an adjective can be in a sentence. You will see these names in textbooks and in German courses.

Only the attributive adjective changes. In the other two places, the adjective keeps the form you find in the dictionary. This is easier than English in one way: German uses schnell for both "fast" and "quickly", with no extra ending like "-ly".

Everything else in this post is about the first row: the adjective before a noun.

The one idea behind every ending

Something before the noun must show its gender and case.

Usually, the article does this job. Then the adjective only needs a small ending, -e or -en. When the article does not show the information, or when there is no article, the adjective must show it.

You can see the idea in three phrases with the same noun, der Kaffee (the coffee):

This is the idea to remember. Every rule and every chart below applies it to one situation.

Three questions decide every ending

• Check whether there is an article before the adjective.
• Check the gender of the noun, or whether it is plural.
• Check the case of the noun.

First, ask whether there is an article in front of the adjective, and whether it is in its basic form. Then ask for the gender: masculine, feminine, neuter, or plural. Finally, find the case: Nominativ, Akkusativ, or Dativ.

You need to know the gender of the noun. If you are not sure how to find it, see der, die, das.

The basic form is the article you learn with a noun: der Hund (the dog), die Lehrerin (the teacher), das Haus (the house), ein Film (a film), or eine Idee (an idea). So the basic forms are der, die, das, ein, and eine.

Every other form is a changed form: den, dem, einen, einem, and einer. The word der is also a changed form when it stands before a feminine noun. For example, die Stadt (the town) is feminine, so in der Stadt (in the town) uses a changed article.

Here are all the rules in one table.

The next sections explain each rule.

After der, die, das

• A basic form, der, die, or das, gives the adjective -e.
• A changed article gives the adjective -en.
• In the plural, the ending after an article is always -en.

In the Akkusativ, only masculine changes: der becomes den. That is why Ich sehe den kleinen Hund. (I see the small dog.) has -en. Feminine and neuter stay in the basic form: Ich sehe die neue Lehrerin. (I see the new teacher.) and Ich sehe das alte Haus. (I see the old house.)

Every Dativ form in this chart takes -en. Watch the feminine Dativ carefully: die Stadt becomes in der Stadt. This der is a changed form of feminine die, so you say in der kleinen Stadt.

Dieser, diese, and dieses (this) behave like der, die, and das. For example: dieser kleine Hund (this small dog) and mit diesem kleinen Hund (with this small dog). Read more about dieser, diese, dieses.

After ein, kein, and mein

• Ein, kein, and mein without an ending need -er or -es on the adjective.
• Eine already shows feminine gender, so the adjective takes -e.
• A changed form such as einen or einem gives the adjective -en.
• In the plural, keine and meine give the adjective -en.

Only three cells differ from the der chart: masculine Nominativ, plus neuter Nominativ and Akkusativ. These are the places where ein has no ending, so it does not show the gender.

The two endings are easy to remember: -er is the ending of der, and -es is the ending of das. So der Film (the film) gives ein guter Film, and das Haus (the house) gives ein schönes Haus.

Be careful with ein guter Film. It is only the Nominativ: Das ist ein guter Film. (That is a good film.) In the Akkusativ, it becomes Ich sehe einen guten Film. (I'm watching a good film.)

Neuter and feminine do not change between Nominativ and Akkusativ: Wir kaufen ein schönes Haus. (We're buying a beautiful house.) and Ich habe eine gute Idee. (I have a good idea.)

Kein (no, not a) and possessives behave like ein: mein (my), dein (your), sein (his), ihr (her, their), unser (our), and euer (your, plural). Unlike ein, they can have a plural form, such as meine neuen Schuhe.

With no article

• With no article, the adjective takes the ending the article would have.
• This is common with food, drinks, and plural nouns.

Think of the article that the noun would have in this case. Then move the article ending to the adjective.

For example, der Kaffee (the coffee) gives kalter Kaffee. Die Milch (the milk) gives frische Milch. Mit dem Wasser (with the water) gives mit warmem Wasser (with warm water).

You can see this in sentences such as Ich trinke gern schwarzen Tee. (I like drinking black tea.), Wir kaufen frisches Obst. (We're buying fresh fruit.), and Sie trägt rote Schuhe. (She is wearing red shoes.)

You can practice phrases with no article in the German Adjective Endings game.

All the endings in one chart

Use this German adjective endings chart as a quick reference.

After an article, -en appears in more than half of the cells. So when you are unsure and there is an article, -en is your best guess.

People will still understand you if an ending is wrong, so don't stop in the middle of a sentence to think about the chart.

Every Dativ ending after an article is -en. Every plural ending after an article is also -en.

What weak, mixed, and strong declension mean

• Weak declension is after der, die, and das.
• Mixed declension is after ein, kein, and mein.
• Strong declension is with no article.

Grammar books and teachers use these names for the three charts above. Schwache Deklination means weak declension, gemischte Deklination means mixed declension, and starke Deklination means strong declension.

"Adjective declension" is simply the grammar term for adjective endings. You do not need these names to choose the correct ending. You only need to know which chart fits your phrase.

How to find the case

• The subject is in the Nominativ.
• The direct object is in the Akkusativ.
• Some prepositions always take one case.
• Two-way prepositions use Dativ for a place and Akkusativ for movement.

The subject is Nominativ: Der kleine Hund schläft. (The small dog is sleeping.) After sein, the noun also stays in the Nominativ: Das ist ein guter Film.

The direct object is Akkusativ: Ich kaufe einen roten Pullover. Prepositions such as für (for), ohne (without), durch (through), gegen (against), and um (around) always take Akkusativ. For example: Er geht durch den dunklen Wald. (He walks through the dark forest.)

Prepositions such as mit (with), bei (at, near), von (from, of), zu (to), aus (out of, from), nach (after, to), and seit (since, for) always take Dativ. For example: Wir fahren mit dem neuen Auto. (We're going in the new car.) See the full list of Dativ prepositions.

Two-way prepositions, including in (in), use Dativ for a place and Akkusativ for movement to a new place. Sie wohnt in einer kleinen Stadt. (She lives in a small town.) answers where, so it is Dativ. Wir gehen in ein teures Restaurant. (We're going to an expensive restaurant.) shows movement, so it is Akkusativ. Read more about two-way prepositions.

Some verbs also take Dativ. For example, helfen (to help) gives Sie hilft alten Menschen. (She helps old people.) If the cases still feel uncertain, start with German cases.

Two spelling details

• Teuer and dunkel lose an e before an ending.
• Two adjectives before one noun take the same ending.

Teuer (expensive) becomes teure or teuren. Dunkel (dark) becomes dunkle or dunklen. For example: Er kauft die teure Uhr. (He buys the expensive watch.) and Er geht durch den dunklen Wald.

When two adjectives describe the same noun, give both the same ending: ein kleiner schwarzer Hund (a small black dog) and mit dem kleinen schwarzen Hund (with the small black dog).

Mistakes learners make

Adding an ending after sein

Wrong: Das Haus ist altes.

Right: Das Haus ist alt.

Why: the adjective is not in front of a noun. Der Hund ist kleiner is a correct sentence, but it means "The dog is smaller", because kleiner is the comparative.

Using -e after den

Wrong: Ich kaufe den rote Pullover.

Right: Ich kaufe den roten Pullover.

Why: den is a changed form, so the adjective takes -en.

Forgetting the ending after ein

Wrong: ein gute Film, ein gut Film, ein schöne Haus

Right: ein guter Film, ein schönes Haus

Why: ein does not show the gender here, so the adjective must show it.

Using -e in the plural

Wrong: die kleine Kinder

Right: die kleinen Kinder

Why: in the plural, the ending after an article is always -en, although die looks like a basic form.

Using -e after feminine Dativ der

Wrong: in der kleine Stadt

Right: in der kleinen Stadt

Why: der is a changed form of the feminine die here. It is not the masculine basic form.

What to do next

Play a round of the German Adjective Endings game. Every round mixes all the rules from this post: Nominativ, Akkusativ, and Dativ, with an article and with no article. Read the rule card after every wrong answer. The game uses the same rule names as the table in this post, so a wrong answer points back to one row of that table.