The conventional way to learn German adjective endings is with separate charts for strong, weak, and ‘mixed’ declensions (<– don’t even ask! There is a determiner present here: “der.”  ==> The adjective ending will be -e or -en. Well, if you understand the concept in English, it will help you with German. Ich spiele gern mit klein___, süß___ Babys. There are 15 items, so keep clicking on “weiter” when you finish a page. With some effort, you should be able to put the correct endings on adjectives without having to refer to a massive diagram or chart. Incorrect guesses will reduce your score. In the sentence "Der blaue Wagen ist neu," the subject is der Wagen and der Wagen is nominative. There are some common adjective nouns referring to people, which are listed below. ==> as above, we are in the plural, ==> the adjective ending will be –en: Wir lieben unsere kleinen Babys. In both sentences, "das Haus" is the nominative subject. The following chart shows the adjective endings for the accusative case with definite articles (der, dem, der) and the indefinite articles (einen, einem, einer, keinen). But don’t worry; we will explain it so that you can understand easily But if we say "Das Mädchen ist schön." Das blaue T-Shirt ist schmutzig. From this arises the first of both the principles for the declension of the adjective: 1. This is also a good example for impressing upon English-speakers the importance of learning the gender of nouns in German. In grammatical terms, adding endings to words is called "inflection" or "declination." Nancy Thuleen’s excellent explanation of adjective endings, clear and concise traditional explanation from the University of Wisconsin, Wikipedia’s comprehensive traditional explanation of adjective endings, click here to see all the items from the question bank, Weak Endings (“Determiner” Present): -e or -en, Index of Video Lectures, Deutsch 101 & 102, Quandary Mazes (Step by step practice) [coming eventually]. I can't make them fun, but I can at least make them a little easier. The adjective endings -en, -e, and -es correspond to the articles den, die, and das respectively (masc., fem., and neuter). Like many things Germanic, this used to happen in Old English. “im” = “in dem” conceals the determiner “dem”; “zur” = “zu + der” conceals the determiner “der.”, If a determiner is present, it already conveys the essential information about the gender and case of the noun, so the adjective can take relatively uninformative “weak” endings, -e or -en. In this case, we are in the plural, ==> the adjective ending will be -en: Wir lieben die kleinen Babys. Instead of memorizing several different charts, I've put together a single table that you can use as a reference to determine the correct adjective ending. 1b. IF YOU GET A QUESTION WRONG, KEEP TRYING UNTIL YOU GET IT RIGHT. We use genitive after certain prepositions, verbs, and adjectives. When the adjective is used with an ein-word (einen, dein, keine, etc. You know that in German a noun always uses a certain case (nominative, dative, etc.). This amounts to the following table of endings: 1. There is a determiner present here: “einen,” an ein-word with an ending. Adjective Nouns Fill in the adjective endings. Skip to secondary content. These will be neuter, and often follow words like. If you were to put in a form of der/das/die, it would be “die” in this case, since the babies are in the accusative (we love them, i.e. 2. Adjective endings reference tables. All Rights Reserved. ("He has a new car."). Der groß e braun e Hund bellte mich an. Notice I said "use," not "explain." When we put endings on words, we are "inflecting" or "declining" them. NOTE: WHERE THERE SHOULD BE NO ENDING, WRITE “x” or “X.” There is a determiner present here: “die.”  ==> The adjective ending will be -e or -en. But in modern English, there is no inflection of adjectives. 3a. NOTE: WHERE THERE SHOULD BE NO ENDING, WRITE “x” or “X.” or "Der Wagen ist blau." There is a determiner present here: “das.”  ==> The adjective ending will be -e or -en. When you are finished, click “Submit” if you are satisfied with your score. The following chart shows the adjective endings for the nominative case with the definite articles (der, die, das) and the indefinite articles (ein, eine, keine). Ich sehe einen klein___ Mann. Kunst Fill in the adjective endings in short descriptions of some famous artworks by German-speaking artists. Ich spiele gern mit einem klein___, süß___ Baby. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. ), there is no ending at all on the adjective (schön or blau) because the adjective is located after the noun (predicate adjective). So we would get "...den blau en Wagen..." (...the blue car...), but "...die blaue Tür.." (the blue door), or "...das blaue Buch..." (the blue book). ==> The adjective ending is -er: Da ist ein kleiner Mann. The adjective ending rule here is: in the accusative case with the definite article (the/den, die, das) the adjective ending is always -en for the masculine (den) form. German cases, including articles and adjective endings, in one color-coded chart. Sie spielt gern mit ihrem klein___, süß___ Baby. Each question involves a German idiom or figure of speech. Duden Wörterbuch, General Links This exercise will open in a new window, as its navigation buttons will take you to a web worksheet on art, and not back to this page on adjective endings. ), the adjective must reflect the gender of the noun that follows. ==> as above, ==> the adjective ending will be -en: Sie spielt gern mit ihrem kleinen süßen Baby. Otherwise, the adjective ending is -en ==> it is -en in the plural, the dative, the genitive, and the masculine accusative. If you were to put in a form of der/das/die, it would be “der” in this case [==> Da ist der klein___ Mann]. Romeo und Julia I Fill in the adjective endings in this passage about Romeo & Julia. In this case, we are in the masculine accusative (the small man is the direct object of the verb “sehen”), ==> The adjective ending is -en: Ich sehe einen kleinen Mann. If there is a determiner preceding the adjective, the adjective will end in -e or -en (“weak endings”). However, when the adjective is used with an ein-word (ein, dein, keine, etc. Da ist der klein___ Mann. This exercise, compiled by Dr. Olaf Böhlke at Creighton University, includes detailed feedback for each item. Compare this to the der – word chart in Unit 2 and you will notice only one difference; the genitive singular (masculine and neuter) ends in – en rather than ‑ es.Otherwise the endings are the same. Once you notice the parallel and the agreement of the letters r, e, s with der, die, das, it becomes less complicated than it may seem at first. To further clarify what is happening here, take a look at the two German sentences below. Look at the two sentences again, and you can probably see a significant difference. German for English Speakers A free online resource Main menu. Adjective endings are usually the least favorite part of learning German, from both the students' and the teacher's viewpoints. Please note that you will not generally find this terminology outside of this webpage, e.g. it’s dumb). For now, we're going to stick to the simple one, the nominative case. The grammar of modern German is similar to Old English (including gender for nouns!). Mar 9, 2019 - german adjective endings chart - Google Search NOTE: WHERE THERE SHOULD BE NO ENDING, WRITE “x” or “X.” Yes, they do require some memorization, but there is a logic to them. Grimm Grammar is an online German grammar reference from the University of Texas at Austin. There is no determiner present here: “ein” is present, but it does not have an ending, so it is not a determiner. The adjective endings for the genitive case follow the same pattern as the dative. Once you notice the parallel and the agreement of the letters n, e, s with den, die, das, it makes the process a little clearer. Instead, let's try to approach adjective endings from a more logic-oriented framework, with a set of rules. They take regular adjective endings in the plural: “Ich habe viele Elvispuppen.” Hoch drops the “c” and adjectives ending in-el or -er drop their final “e” when they take adjective endings.