Adjectives in German

Adjectives are words used to describe nouns. You can use adjectives to add more detail to what you want to say, like the colour or size of something or what someone’s personality is like.

Adjectives: how to describe people, places and things in German

So you want to describe things in German.

Let’s start with a dog - ein Hund. And let’s say the dog you are describing is the subject of the sentence - it’s in the nominative case.

When you use an adjective after ein - because 'dog' is a masculine noun the adjective adds -er.

Ein brauner Hund - a brown dog.

For a feminine noun such as eine Katze - a cat - you add an -e to the end of the adjective: eine lustige Katze - a funny cat.

And for a neuter noun such as ein Kaninchen - a rabbit - you add -es: ein süßes Kaninchen - a sweet rabbit.

So far so good. But if you want to use the definite article - der, die or das, followed by an adjective the endings are different.

In the nominative case you just add an -e to the end of the adjective:

der braune Hund

die lustige Katze

das süße Kaninchen.

But if the noun you are describing is the object of the sentence - it’s in the accusative case - then the endings of the adjectives change again.

For a masculine noun the adjective adds an -n after both einen and den.

Ich sehe einen braunen Hund - I see a brown dog.

Ich sehe den braunen Hund - I see the brown dog.

And if the noun you are describing is feminine or neuter, the endings are the same in the nominative and accusative cases.

Ich sehe eine lustige Katze.

Ich sehe die lustige Katze.

Ich sehe ein süßes Kaninchen.

Ich sehe das süße Kaninchen.

So watch out for the gender of nouns, and whether they are in the nominative or accusative case, and get describing.

Nouns are people, places and things. All German nouns start with a capital letter.

Take a look at the table below for some useful adjectives:

German	English
lustig	funny
nett	nice
freundlich	friendly
sympathisch	kind
laut	loud
ruhig	quiet
faul	lazy
intelligent	intelligent
sportlich	sporty
kreativ	creative
streng	strict
fleißig	hardworking

You can put an adjective after a noun in a sentence using the verb sein (to be).

Der Hund ist braun - The dog is brown.
Die Frau ist intelligent - The woman is intelligent.
Das Mädchen ist sportlich - The girl is sporty.

Adjective endings

If you want to use an adjective before a noun, like the black cat, you need to add an ending to the adjective. The adjective ending depends on whether the noun you are describing is in the nominative or accusative case. You also have to pay attention to the gender, number and whether the article is definite (der, die, das) or indefinite (ein, eine, ein).

Nominative case

The nominative case is used when the noun is the subject of the sentence. This means the noun is doing the action (indicated by the verb) in the sentence.

Der Mann macht ein Sandwich - The man makes a sandwich.

Here, the man is performing the action. He is making the sandwich, so der Mann is the subject in this sentence and is in the nominative case.

Look at the tables below for adjective endings in the nominative case.

Definite article (der, die, das)

Gender	Ending	Example
masculine (der)	-e	der alte Mann - the old man
feminine (die)	-e	die alte Frau - the old woman
neuter (das)	-e	das alte Haus - the old house
plural (die)	-en	die alten Gebäude - the old buildings

Indefinite article (ein, eine, ein)

Gender	Ending	Example
masculine (ein)	-er	ein alter Mann - an old man
feminine (eine)	-e	eine alte Frau - an old woman
neuter (ein)	-es	ein altes Haus - an old house

Accusative case

The accusative case is used when the noun is the object of the sentence.

Der Mann macht ein Sandwich - The man makes a sandwich.

Here, the sandwich is having the action done to it. It is being made, so ein Sandwich is the direct object in the sentence and is in the accusative case.

Look at the tables below for adjective endings in the accusative case.

Definite article (den, die, das)

Watch out! The masculine der becomes den in the accusative case.

Gender	Ending	Example
masculine (den)	-en	Ich sehe den braunen Hund - I see the brown dog.
feminine (die)	-e	Ich sehe die braune Katze - I see the brown cat.
neuter (das)	-e	Ich sehe das braune Kaninchen - I see the brown rabbit.
plural (die)	-en	Ich sehe die braunen Pferde - I see the brown horses.

Indefinite article (einen, eine, ein)

Watch out! The masculine ein becomes einen in the accusative case.

Gender	Ending	Example
masculine (einen)	-en	Ich sehe einen braunen Hund - I see a brown dog.
feminine (eine)	-e	Ich sehe eine braune Katze - I see a brown cat.
neuter (ein)	-es	Ich sehe ein braunes Kaninchen - I see a brown rabbit.

Comparative adjectives

You can also use adjectives to compare two things. To do this, you need to use comparative adjectives. As is often the case in English, in German most adjectives just add -er on the end!

Meine Mutter ist strenger als mein Vater - My mother is stricter than my father.
Mein Bruder ist lustiger als meine Schwester - My brother is funnier than my sister.

There are some exceptions as some adjectives also add an umlaut when used in their comparative form.