All About German Adjectives – Learn Easy Way / Adjektive

In this lesson, you will learn all about German adjectives. In this lesson, you will learn about adjectives in the German language. We will cover important aspects that can help you master German more easily. You will discover what German adjectives are, their characteristics, how they are used, how they are declined according to different cases, and how they are compared.

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

CONTENT

What are German adjectives?
Characteristics of adjectives
Attributive adjectives
Predicative adjectives
Declination of adjectives
Comparison of adjectives
Adjectives that cannot be compared
Compound adjectives

What are German adjectives?

Adjectives describe nouns. We use them to say what something or someone is like.

Adjectives can be used in two main ways:

1. Adjectives may be separated from the noun by the verb to be – sein or to become – werden.
   For example:
   Er ist klug. – He is clever.
   Wir sind auch klug. – We are clever too.
   Ich bin klug. – I am clever.
   Das Haus ist schön. – The house is beautiful.
   Die Häuser sind schön. – The houses are beautiful.
   
   The adjectives used in this manner never change.
   
2. Adjectives may come before the noun they are describing:
   
   For example:
   Er ist ein kluger Mann. – He is a clever man.
   Sie ist eine kluge Frau. – She is a clever woman.
   Er ist ein kluges Kind. – He is a clever child.
   Sie sind kluge Kinder. – They are clever children.
   Sie hat lockige blonde Haare. – She has curly blonde hair.
   
   Adjectives that precede a noun have different endings. They must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case and always be written in lowercase letters.
   
   For example:
   Ich esse gerne scharfes Essen. – I like eating spicy food.
   Ich schneide das Brot mit einem scharfen Messer.-  I cut the bread with a sharp knife.
   Er hat einen schwarzen Mantel an. – He is wearing a black coat.
   Sein schwarzer Mantel ist cool. – His black coat is cool.

Click on:
Grammar Content

Characteristics of adjectives – Common rules

• Adjectives describe the qualities of someone or something.
  For example:
  Der Park ist schön. – The park is beautiful.
• Adjectives are declined based on gender, number, and case.
  For example:
  Es ist ein wirklich schöner Park. – It is a really beautiful park.
• Adjectives can also be used to compare one thing or person with another, forming positive, comparative, and superlative degrees: schön (beautiful) – schöner (more beautiful) – am schönsten (most beautiful).
• There are two types of adjectives: attributive and predicative.
  For example:
  Attributive: der schöne Park – the beautiful park
  Predicative: der Park ist schön – the park is beautiful
• Additionally, adjectives can be used as nouns
  For example:
  Der Alte und der Junge. – The Old Man and the Young Man.

Attributive adjectives

Adjectives placed in front of a noun are used attributively. They must agree with the noun in gender and number. They describe and they are declined.

For example:
Hast du das neue Plakat gesehen? – Have you seen the new poster?
Die reifen Äpfel schmecken wirklich gut. – The ripe apples taste really nice.

Attributive adjectives can have a der, ein or zero declension. All three declensions are regular and involve no more than minor variations in endings. The particular declension used depends on what determiner (if any) precedes the adjective.

For example:
Mia hat ein schönes Kleid gekauft! – Mia has bought a beautiful dress!
Ich bin mit meiner älteren Schwester ins Kino gegangen. – I went to the movies with my older sister.
Wir haben einen interessanten Film gesehen. – We’ve seen an interesting movie.

An attributive adjective stand in front of a noun.

For Example:
ein schönes Kleid (an attributive adjective)
mit meiner älteren Schwester
einen interessanten Film

Attributive adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they precede.

To accurately determine the correct ending for an attributive adjective preceding a German noun, it’s essential to learn three sets of adjectival endings:

1. Weak endings: These are used after the definite articles der, die, das.
2. Mixed endings: These are used after the indefinite articles ein, eine, ein.
3. Strong endings: These are applied when there are no preceding articles.

Understanding these paradigms will help you correctly modify adjectives in German.

Adjective endings may vary slightly, so don’t worry too much about using the correct one. People will still understand you. Remember, you can always mumble the endings😅😆😎!

Predicative adjectives

Adjectives can be used in two ways: predicatively and attributively, similar to their use in English. A predicate (or predicative) adjective does not appear in front of a noun; rather, it follows a linking verb. For example, in the sentence “His sweater is yellow,” “yellow” is a predicate adjective. In contrast, in “his yellow sweater,” “yellow” is an attributive adjective because it is placed directly before the noun.

Predicate adjectives remain invariable, meaning they do not change form and do not take any endings. For instance, in German, you would say “Sein Pullover ist gelb,” where “gelb” (yellow) is a predicate adjective.

When adjectives describe a noun and are positioned after linking verbs such as “to be” (sein), “to remain” (bleiben), or “to become” (werden), they typically do not take an ending.

For example:

Mias Kleid ist schön. – Mia`s dress is beautiful.
Mir wird kalt.  – I´m getting cold.
Er wird blind. – He goes blind.
Unser Lehrer wird sauer. – Our teacher gets angry.
Er bleibt immer höfflich bis zum Schluss.  – He remains polite until the end.

Declination of adjectives

Adjectives also differ in their declension.
There are three types of adjective declension:
1. Adjectives after der, die ,das, die and dieser ( this)
2. Adjectives after indirect article
3.Adjectives describing a noun which has no article

Adjectives after der, die ,das, die and dieser ( this)

As you can see from the table above there are only two different endings for adjectives following the definite articles, der, die, das, die and dieser, -e and -en.

Adjectives after indirect article

The adjective endings after the indefinite article a – ein, no/not any – kein and the possessives my – mein, your – dein, etc. are as follows:

There are four different endings (-e, -er, -en, -es) but -en is used most.

Adjectives describing a noun which has no article

This is not used very much in conversation except in certain expressions. The endings are the same as the endings for the definite article (the).

Comparison of adjectives

Adjectives can be compared in three degrees:
1. the basic form
2. the comparative
3. the superlative

There are three types of comparison:

In German, comparatives (the form of an adjective used to compare two or more things or people) and superlatives (the form used to express the highest degree of a quality) are formed by adding “-er” for comparatives and “-est” or “-st” for superlatives. This process involves modifying the basic adjective and then adding the appropriate endings based on the grammatical context.

Regular Comparison

German comparatives and superlatives are formed by adding the adjective ending –er and -est/-st to the basic adjective. German superlatives can be formed by adding the adjective ending am … -(e)sten to the basic adjective as well.

Umlaut in the comparative and the superlative

Most common adjectives of one syllable add an umlaut to a, o or u in the comparative or superlative.

The rules are the same as by the Regular Comparison, only in the comparative and superlative we add UMLAUT.

Irregular Comparison

Common irregular comparative and superlative forms include:

Adjectives ending in -er and -el

Two more exceptions😌

The base form loses the -e- in the comparative: dunkel -dunkler

Adjectives ending in  -t / -d; -s / -z / -ß / -sch

By adjectives ending in -t / -d; -s / -z / -ß / -sch in the superlative is added ending -esten.

How do we compare

As I already said, adjectives can compare things and persons,  and then we express equality and inequality:

Expressing Equality ( so/genauso + basic form + wie)

Mia ist genauso alt wie Majda. 
Majda ist so groß wie  Pavle.
Gabriel ist genauso jung wie Elena.

Expressing INequality (comparative + als)

Mia ist älter als Leon. 
Leon ist kleiner als Tina.
Tina ist jünger als Mia.

In the superlative, we cannot compare anything, because there are only the best, the fastest, and the richest, ….
Mia ist am ältesten.
Leon ist am kleinsten.
Tina ist am jüngsten.

Click on:
Grammar Contents

Adjectives that cannot be compared

Yes, there are adjectives that CANNOT be compared. There you have to pay attention to the meaning, for example:

ledig (single), schwanger (pregnant), tot (dead), lebendig (alive), fertig (finished/done), richtig (correct), falsch (wrong), stumm (mute), taub (deaf)

The numbers that behave like adjectives cannot be compared (e.g. zwei, drei, ..), than colours (e.g. rot, blau, …),  nationalities (e.g. italienisch, englisch, …) and participles that behave like adjectives (e.g. spielend, singend).

Compound adjectives

Adjectives can be combined with other words to strengthen the meaning of the other words.

For example:

bärenstark – extremely strong/ as strong as an ox
knallrot – bright red
totmüde – tired to death

Or for the sake of comparison:

messerscharf – (as) sharp as a razor
felsenfest – solid as a rock
federleicht – light as a feather

See more: