Adjectives

Adjektive

Adjective is a part of speech that describes the noun e.g. pretty smile, fast car. It answers the question was für ein(e)? (what kind of?). Its form (ending) depends on the gender, case, and number.

Examples of using adjectives

Construction of adjectives

Adjectives can be derived from nouns and verbs (sometimes it is also possible to derive them from other adjectives).

Adjectives derived from nouns

Adjectives are derived from nouns by adding an appropriate suffix. Sometimes it may be necessary to remove one or more letters from the noun's ending.

Adjectives derived from verbs

Adjectives are derived from verbs by removing the -en ending from the verb and by adding a suffix. Adjectives can also be derived from the participles Partizip I and Partizip II.

Adjectives derived from adjectives

Adjectives are derived from other adjectives by adding an appropriate prefix (in that case most often the created adjective has the opposite meaning)

Gradation of adjectives

In German, there is only one way of grading adjectives: by adding the suffixes -er (comparative) and - e)ste (superlative). It is not possible to gradate an adjective by preceding it with "more".

• regular adjectives (graded only by adding the suffixes -er and -(e)ste
• In addition, adjectives can be divided into the following groups:
• regular adjectives with a small change (usually this is the addition of an umlaut in the case of monosyllabic adjectives, e.g. a 👉 ä: kalt 👉 kälter 👉 kälteste or omitting one letter, e.g. when the adjective ends with -er: teuer 👉 teurer 👉 teuerste)

Superlative

There are different variants of forming the adjective in the superlative, which we use depending on the sentence and whether the adjective stands immediately before the noun.

• am + Adjective (if the adjective follows the noun to which it refers, then we use the construction: am + adjective)
• bestimmter Artikel + Adjektiv + Nomen (if the adjective comes directly before the noun, then we use the construction: definite article + adjective + noun)
• bestimmter Artikel + Adjektiv (if the adjective follows the noun it refers to, then we can also use the construction: definite article + adjective)

Applications and declension of adjectives

Declension of adjectives for gender and number

Masculine (Maskulinum)

The table shows how the adjective gut (good) is inflected for a masculine noun.

Feminine (Femininum)

The table shows how the adjective gut (good) is inflected for a feminine noun.

Neuter (Neutrum)

The table shows how the adjective gut (good) is inflected for a neuter noun.

Plural (Plural)

The table shows how the adjective gut (good) is inflected for a plural noun.

Adjective endings in all cases, singular and plural

Adjective endings (with a definite article)

The table shows what suffix needs to be added to the adjective depending on the grammatical case, gender, and number with a definite article.

Adjective endings (with an indefinite article)

The table shows what suffix needs to be added to the adjective depending on the grammatical case, gender, and number with an indefinite article.

Adjective endings (without an article)

The table shows what suffix needs to be added to the adjective depending on the grammatical case, gender, and number without an article.

Exceptions and special cases

Adjectives ending with -e

For adjectives ending with -e we omit the e in the suffix.

The irregular adjective hoch

The only irregular adjective in the positive degree (the c is discarded from the ch).

Adjectives ending with -el

If an adjective ends with -el, we remove the e from the suffix -el, and then we add a suffix according to one of the tables above.

Some adjectives ending with -er

Sometimes, when an adjective ends with -er we remove the letter e from the suffix -er and then we add an appropriate suffix according to the one of the aforementioned tables.