Adjective Endings

When an adjective changes its ending, and which ending to use.

Maskulin Feminin Neutrum Plural

The first question: is the adjective before a noun?

German adjectives only take an ending when they stand directly before a noun (attributive). When they stand after the verb (predicative — after sein, werden, bleiben), they take no ending at all.

Das Auto ist neu.

The car is new.

Predicative (after "ist") — no ending. Just "neu".

Das ist ein neues Auto.

That is a new car.

Attributive (before "Auto") — the adjective must take an ending: neues.

After der / die / das (weak endings)

When a definite article (der, die, das, die) already shows the gender and case, the adjective does little work. The ending is almost always -e or -en. Learn the shape of this table — the -en fills most of it.

	Maskulin	Feminin	Neutrum	Plural
Nominativ	der gute Mann	die gute Frau	das gute Kind	die guten Kinder
Akkusativ	den guten Mann	die gute Frau	das gute Kind	die guten Kinder
Dativ	dem guten Mann	der guten Frau	dem guten Kind	den guten Kindern

Der alte Mann liest die Zeitung.

The old man reads the newspaper.

alt → alte. Maskulin Nominativ after "der" takes -e.

Ich sehe den alten Mann.

I see the old man.

alt → alten. Maskulin Akkusativ (der → den) takes -en — the one square that changes.

After ein / kein / mein (mixed endings)

When an indefinite article (ein, eine), a negation (kein), or a possessive (mein, dein…) comes first, it does not always show the gender — so the adjective has to. In three squares the adjective takes the "strong" ending the article is missing: -er (maskulin Nom), -es (neutrum Nom/Akk).

	Maskulin	Feminin	Neutrum	Plural (kein)
Nominativ	ein guter Mann	eine gute Frau	ein gutes Kind	keine guten Kinder
Akkusativ	einen guten Mann	eine gute Frau	ein gutes Kind	keine guten Kinder
Dativ	einem guten Mann	einer guten Frau	einem guten Kind	keinen guten Kindern

Das ist ein guter Freund.

That is a good friend.

gut → guter. After "ein" (which has no ending here), the adjective shows maskulin Nominativ with -er.

Wir haben ein schönes Haus.

We have a beautiful house.

schön → schönes. After "ein" the neutrum ending -es marks the gender.

With no article

When there is no article at all (often with plurals, drinks, or abstract nouns), the adjective must carry the full case information itself — it takes the "strong" endings that der/die/das would have had.

Ich trinke kalten Kaffee.

I drink cold coffee.

kalt → kalten. No article + maskulin Akkusativ → the adjective takes -en (the "den" ending).

Kleine Kinder spielen gern.

Small children like to play.

klein → kleine. No article + plural Nominativ → -e (the "die" ending).

Adjective endings in one line

After the verb (predicative): no ending — "Das Auto ist neu."
Before a noun (attributive): always an ending.
After der/die/das → mostly -e / -en. After ein/kein/mein → the adjective adds -er (masc Nom) and -es (neut) to show the gender the article hides.

Related

• Nominativ · Akkusativ · Dativ — the cases the endings track
• Comparison — comparatives like "der größere Apfel" still take these same endings