German adjective declensions

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We distinguish four situations:

1. If the adjective is all alone behind sein, it is too shy to show an ending.
2. If the adjective stands alone with a noun (without an article), it shows strength by using the strong declension.
3. If the adjective stands between a definite article and a noun, it only uses the weak declension.
4. If the adjective stands between an indefinite article and a noun, it can't really judge the situation, so it uses a mixture of strong and weak declension.

Strong Declension (m) (f) (n) pl. nom. -er -e -es -e gen. -en -er -en -er dat. -em -er -em -en acc. -en -e -es -e

Weak Declension (m) (f) (n) pl. nom. -e -e -e -en gen. -en -en -en -en dat. -en -en -en -en acc. -en -e -e -en

Mixed Declension (m) (f) (n) pl. nom. -er -e -es -en gen. -en -en -en -en dat. -en -en -en -en acc. -en -e -es -en

This looks quite confusing. Let's see whether we can find some regularities:

• In nominative singular, the weak declension is -e, otherwise it's -en.
• If the definite article is the same as in nominative, the weak declension is the same as in nominative, too.
• The strong declension depends on the definite article: DAS/-es, DEM/-em, DEN/-en, DER/-er, DES/-en, DIE/-e
• If the weak declension is -en, so is the mixed one, otherwise it's like the strong declension.

>> languages >> German >> German grammar >> German adjectives
German adjective declensions (dialect case study)