All About German Strong Adjective Declension/ Declension without the Article / Starke Deklination von Adjektiven

In this lesson, you will learn all about the strong declension of adjectives in the German language, that is, about the declension without an article before an adjective. Here you can find all the rules and instructions for how to pronounce strong declension. Many people roll their eyes at the mention of adjective declensions in the German language, but if you carefully analyze the rules and instructions in this lesson, you will see that it is actually not as difficult as you thought.

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CONTENTS

Adjective Declension Without Article
The Definite Article And Adjective Endings
Adjectives Without Endings
Viele, manche, mehrere, einige, andere, wenige, etliche 
Examples for the accusative case
Exceptions

Adjective Declension Without Article

An adjective changes according to the weak adjective declension when it is preceded by a definite article. The mixed adjective declension goes with the indefinite article.

And finally the strong  adjective declension, when there is NO article in front of  the adjective. This declension in German is called Adjektivdeklination nach dem Nullartikel, corresponding to English: Declension of adjectives with a null article.

The declension of adjectives after the zero article looks like this:

The definite article and adjective endings

And here we can compare the definite article and adjective endings:

N: der – alter Mann          das – kleines Kind       die – junge Frau
G: des – alten Mannes       des– kleinen Kindes    der –  junger Frau
D: dem – altem Mann       dem– kleinem Kind     der –  junger Frau
A: den– alten Mann          das – kleines Kind       die – junge Frau   

Plural:

N: die – alte Männer
G: der – alten Männer
D: den– alten Männern
A: die -alte Männer

Examples:

• Ich höre gern klassische Musik. – I like listening to classical music.
• Gibt es hier am Sonntag frisches Brot zu kaufen? – Can you buy fresh bread here on Sunday?
• Ich sehe gern alte italienische Filme. – I like watching old Italian movies.
• Er mag gerne schnelle Autos. – He likes fast cars.
• Meine Tochter isst gern schweizerische Schokolade. – My daughter likes to eat Swiss chocolate.
• Ich esse gern frisches Obst. – I like to eat fresh fruit.
• Ich hatte auf dem Schiff ein Zimmer mit fließendem warmem und kaltem Wasser. – I had a room on the ship with hot and cold running water.

Note: Adjective endings in this declension are adjusted in accordance to the noun. Therefore, the adjective gets the same endings as the definite article, except in the genitive singular masculine and neuter gender.

In the genitive, the ending -en is preferred instead of -es. The genitive with the ending -es is preserved in expressions: reines Herzens , keineswegs, keinesalls

Adjectives Without Endings

Adjectives without endings, such as numbers behaving as an adjective, then manch, solch, viel, wenig, welch, as well as etwas and mehr, are followed by a strong adjective declension.
For example:
drei neue Bücher – three new books
manch kleines Mädchen – some little girls
bei solch ausgezeichnetem Lehrer – with such an excellent teacher
etwas warme Speise – some warm food
Welch schöner Tag! – What a beautiful day!

Viele, manche, mehrere, einige, andere, wenige, etliche 

The adjectives viele, manche, mehrere, einige, andere, wengie, etliche are also declined according to the strong declension, that is, as the null article / Nullartikel:

• viele → viele schöne Häuser (many beautiful houses)
• manche → manche kleine Dinge (some small things)
• mehrere → mehrere kleine Kinder  (several small children)
• einige → einige große Bäume (some large trees)
• andere → andere wichtige Gründe (other important reasons)
• wenige → wenige gute Antworten ( few good answers)
• etliche → etliche alte Freude (several old delights)

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Grammar Contents

Examples for the accusative case

In the examples you can see how the adjective takes the suffix of the definite article.

den Wein                Ich trinke gern italienischen Wein
die Schokolade      Ich esse gern schweizerische Schokolade.
das Brot                 Ich esse gerne selbstgebackenes Brot.

Exceptions

• Adjectives ending in -el and most adjectives in -er LOSE the- e –
  For example:
  teuer  – e – is absent:  ein teures  Auto
  dunkel – e – is absent: ein dunkles Haus
• Adjective hoch  loses – c – :   ein hohes Gebäude
• Some adjectives that end in -a do not receive an ending, like: rosa, prima, Iila, extra, super, klasse.
  For example: ein rosa Hemd
• adjectives derived from the names of cities always have the suffix -er and are written with a capital letter:
  der Berliner Fernsehturm
  die Hamburger Innenstadt
  mit einem Frankfurter Würstchen

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