German Adjective Endings Chart and Rules

When an adjective takes an ending

An adjective takes an ending when it stands in front of its noun: der alte Mann, ein altes Haus. After sein, werden or bleiben, it takes none: Der Mann ist alt. Das Wetter wird schlecht. That's worth checking first, since after those three verbs no table applies.

Weak, strong and mixed adjective endings

Grammar books call these changes German adjective declension, and they split them into three types by the word in front of the adjective.

• Weak endings come after der, die and das, and after dieser, jeder and welcher.
• Mixed endings come after ein, kein and the possessives: mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer and Ihr.
• Strong endings come when there's no article at all.

Each type has four cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive) and four columns (masculine, feminine, neuter and plural), which makes 16 cells. The three types make 48, and every one of them takes -e, -en, -er, -es or -em.

The German adjective endings tables

The weak and mixed tables use the same adjective, nett (nice), with der Mann, die Frau, das Kind and the plural die Kinder. The mixed plural uses keine, because ein has no plural: keine netten Kinder. The strong table uses frisch (fresh) with food and drink, because nouns for people rarely go without an article in the singular.

Read down the weak table and the pattern shows: -e in five cells, -en in the other eleven.

Which endings are the most common

Of the 48 cells, 26 take -en, 11 take -e, 5 take -er, 4 take -es and 2 take -em. The -em ending appears only in the strong dative, masculine and neuter: mit kaltem Wasser.

The endings -er, -es and -em appear only where no article shows the gender and case. That means no article at all, or one of the three mixed cells where ein, kein or mein has no ending of its own. Everywhere an article does show it, the adjective takes -e or -en. So if you have to guess, guess -en. It's right more often than the other four put together.

After an article: -e or -en

Once the article shows the case and gender, the adjective has less to do. After der, dieser, ein, kein, mein or any other article, every dative, every genitive and every plural ending is -en: dem netten Mann, der netten Frau, die netten Kinder. The ending is -e only in the nominative singular and in the feminine and neuter accusative: der nette Mann, die nette Frau, das nette Kind. That leaves the masculine accusative, which takes -en: den netten Mann.

So of the 32 cells after an article, 29 are -e or -en. The other three come next.

Weak and mixed endings differ in three cells

The weak and mixed tables match everywhere except in the masculine nominative and the neuter nominative and accusative.

• der alte Mann, but ein alter Mann
• das alte Haus, but ein altes Haus (in the nominative and the accusative)

In those three cells, ein, kein and mein have no ending of their own, so they can't show the gender or the case. The adjective shows it instead, with the ending der or das would have had: -er for masculine, -es for neuter. In the other 13 cells the ein-word has an ending (einen, einem, eines, eine, einer, keine), and the adjective goes back to -e or -en, as it would after der. Learn ein alter Mann and ein altes Haus by heart, and the article does the rest.

Strong endings copy the article

With no article, the adjective takes over the article's ending, so the adjective alone shows the case and gender:

• der → kalter Kaffee
• dem → mit kaltem Wasser
• die → frische Milch
• das → frisches Brot

It works across the table. The dative article der gives mit frischer Milch, and the accusative den gives frischen Kaffee.

There's one exception. In the masculine and neuter genitive, the adjective takes -en, not -es, because the noun already ends in -s: wegen schlechten Wetters. The strong genitive is mostly found in writing, so it's the last part of the table to worry about.

The German adjective endings flowchart

Three questions find any ending in the tables. Ask them in order.

1. 1Is there an article in front of the adjective?der, dieser, jeder, ein, kein, mein…
   NoThe ending the article would have had: der → -er, die → -e, das → -es, den → -en, dem → -em. kalter Kaffee, mit kaltem WasserIn the masculine and neuter genitive it's -en, because the noun already ends in -s: wegen schlechten Wetters
   Yes
2. 2Does the article have an ending of its own?ein, kein and mein have none in the masculine nominative and the neuter nominative and accusative
   No-er for masculine, -es for neuter. ein alter Mann, mein neues Auto
   Yes
3. 3Is it nominative singular, or feminine or neuter accusative?
   Yes-e der alte Mann, eine neue Lampe, das kleine Kind

   No-en den alten Mann, mit der neuen Lampe, die kleinen Kinder

We test the flowchart against the three tables for every article and every cell, and it gives the same ending as the tables in all of them. To keep it beside you, the Print this chart button puts the flowchart and the three tables on one page.

Exceptions and special cases

Two adjectives in a row take the same ending: ein großer, schwarzer Hund, and mit kaltem, frischem Wasser.

Some stems change when they take an ending. Teuer becomes teure, dunkel becomes dunkle and hoch becomes hohe. Das Haus ist hoch, but it's das hohe Haus.

A few adjectives never change. Lila, rosa and prima take no ending (ein lila Kleid), and neither do city adjectives in -er: der Berliner Bahnhof.

After numbers, and after viele, einige, wenige and mehrere, the plural takes the strong endings: zwei alte Freunde, viele neue Bücher. After alle, it takes -en: alle alten Freunde.

How to practice German adjective endings

Learn the endings one table at a time, and leave the strong genitive for last.

1. Know the articles first. The adjective's ending depends on the article, so der, den, dem and des need to be steady, along with each noun's gender. The der die das quiz drills the genders, and the German case worksheets drill the articles in all four cases. Many of those cases come from a preposition (mit dem netten Mann), and the German two-way prepositions guide shows when in, auf and the rest take the accusative or the dative.
2. Learn the -e or -en rule after an article. Start with the weak table, where no other ending appears.
3. Add the three mixed cells. Ein alter Mann and ein altes Haus are the ones to know.
4. Add the strong endings last. They copy the article, so they come quickly once the articles are steady, and the strong genitive can wait longest.

The German adjective endings quiz lets you take those steps one ending type and one case at a time. It gives the reason after every answer, and Practice my mistakes runs the sentences you missed again. For a class, the German adjective endings worksheets print the same drills with an answer key, plus the tables to fill in. Start with one table and two cases, and the sentences you miss will show you which cells to drill next.

Frequently asked questions

Licenses and credits

Noun genders and endings come from English Wiktionary through kaikki.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). The sentences are written for NexaProva.