External links
For a list of words relating to German adjectives, see the German adjectives category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
- Helmut Richter. "German Declension" . Retrieved 2008-02-05.
- Dr. T's German Adjective Ending Tutorial
| German grammar |
|---|
German adjectives come before the noun, as in English, and are usually not capitalized. However, as in French and other Indo-European languages, they are inflected when they come before a noun. (But, unlike in French, they are not inflected when used as predicative adjectives.) That is, they take an ending that depends on the gender, case, and number of the noun phrase.
German adjectives take different sets of endings in different circumstances. Essentially, the adjectives must provide case, gender and number information if the articles do not.
This table lists the various endings, in order masculine, feminine, neuter, plural, for the different inflection cases. For example, "X e X e" denotes "ein, eine, ein, eine"; and "m r m n" denotes "gutem, guter, gutem, guten".
| Nominative | Accusative | Dative | Genitive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strong inflection endings No article, or following quantity | r e s e | n e s e | m r m n | n r n r |
| Mixed inflection endings Following indefinite article or possessive determiner | r e s n | n e s n | n n n n | n n n n |
| Weak inflection endings Following definite article | e e e n | n e e n | n n n n | n n n n |
| Indefinite article / possessive determiner endings E.g. ein-, kein-, mein-, dein, ihr-, etc. | X e X e | n e X e | m r m n | s r s r |
| Definite article E.g. der, das, die, den, etc. | r e s e | n e s e | m r m n | s r s r |
Here are some examples:
The strong inflection is used when there is no article at all, or if the noun is preceded by a non-inflectable word or phrase such as ein bisschen, etwas or viel ("a little, some, a lot of/much"). It is also used when the adjective is preceded merely by another regular (i.e. non-article) adjective. More specifically, strong inflection is used:
The adjective endings are similar to the definite article endings, apart from the adjectival ending "-en" in the masculine and neuter genitive singular. (Note: the masculine and neuter genitive singular was originally "-es", as might be expected, but the weak ending "-en" began to displace it by the seventeenth century, and became common by the mid-eighteenth. [2] )
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | neuer | neue | neues | neue |
| Accusative | neuen | neue | neues | neue |
| Dative | neuem | neuer | neuem | neuen |
| Genitive | neuen | neuer | neuen | neuer |
The mixed inflection is used when the adjective is preceded by an indefinite article (ein-, kein-) or a possessive determiner.
Note: The prevailing view[ citation needed ] is that the mixed inflection is not a true inflection in its own right, but merely the weak inflection with a few additions to compensate for the lack of the masculine nominative and neuter nominative and accusative endings.
Mixed inflection is used after:
Nominative and accusative singular endings are the same as in the strong inflection; all other forms end with "-en".
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ein neuer | eine neue | ein neues | meine neuen |
| Accusative | einen neuen | eine neue | ein neues | meine neuen |
| Dative | einem neuen | einer neuen | einem neuen | meinen neuen |
| Genitive | eines neuen | einer neuen | eines neuen | meiner neuen |
The weak inflection is used when there is a definite word in place (der [die, das, des, den, dem], jed-, jen-, manch-, dies-, solch- and welch-). The definite word has provided most of the necessary information, so the adjective endings are simpler.
The endings are applicable to every degree of comparison (positive, comparative, and superlative).
Weak inflection is used after:
Five endings in the nominative and accusative cases end with -e, all others with -en.
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | der neue | die neue | das neue | die neuen |
| Accusative | den neuen | die neue | das neue | die neuen |
| Dative | dem neuen | der neuen | dem neuen | den neuen |
| Genitive | des neuen | der neuen | des neuen | der neuen |
Several quantifying words are not (always) inflected:
"wenig" and "viel" can be put in the plural, where they take endings as normal: viele/wenige Kinder
The basic form of the adjective is the positive form: the adjective stem with the appropriate ending.
The basic comparative form consists of the stem and the suffix -er. Inflected, the corresponding adjective ending is attached.
A predicate form of the superlative is actually a prepositional phrase. One attaches the suffixes -st and the adjective ending -en to the root, and the word am is put before it.
The attributive superlative form adds the "st" to the comparative root and then the conventional adjective ending.
This form can also be placed in a predicate position with the appropriate adjective ending:
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nominal groups consisting of a noun and its modifiers belong to one of a few such categories. For instance, in English, one says I see them and they see me: the nominative pronouns I/they represent the perceiver and the accusative pronouns me/them represent the phenomenon perceived. Here, nominative and accusative are cases, that is, categories of pronouns corresponding to the functions they have in representation.
This page describes the declension of nouns, adjectives and pronouns in Slovene. For information on Slovene grammar in general, see Slovene grammar.
Standard Romanian shares largely the same grammar and most of the vocabulary and phonological processes with the other three surviving varieties of Balkan Romance, namely Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian.
Yiddish grammar is the system of principles which govern the structure of the Yiddish language. This article describes the standard form laid out by YIVO while noting differences in significant dialects such as that of many contemporary Hasidim. As a Germanic language descended from Middle High German, Yiddish grammar is very similar to that of German, though it also has numerous linguistic innovations as well as grammatical features influenced by or borrowed from Hebrew, Aramaic, and various Slavic languages.
The grammar of Old English is quite different from that of Modern English, predominantly by being much more inflected. As an old Germanic language, Old English has a morphological system that is similar to that of the Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections thought to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including constructions characteristic of the Germanic daughter languages such as the umlaut.
The grammar of the Polish language is characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There commonly are no articles, and there is frequent dropping of subject pronouns. Distinctive features include the different treatment of masculine personal nouns in the plural, and the complex grammar of numerals and quantifiers.
Romanian nouns, under the rules of Romanian grammar, are declined, varying by gender, number, and case.
German declension is the paradigm that German uses to define all the ways articles, adjectives and sometimes nouns can change their form to reflect their role in the sentence: subject, object, etc. Declension allows speakers to mark a difference between subjects, direct objects, indirect objects and possessives by changing the form of the word—and/or its associated article—instead of indicating this meaning through word order or prepositions. As a result, German can take a much more fluid approach to word order without the meaning being obscured. In English, a simple sentence must be written in strict word order. This sentence cannot be expressed in any other word order than how it is written here without changing the meaning. A translation of the same sentence from German to English would appear rather different and can be expressed with a variety of word order with little or no change in meaning.
The grammar of Modern Greek, as spoken in present-day Greece and Cyprus, is essentially that of Demotic Greek, but it has also assimilated certain elements of Katharevousa, the archaic, learned variety of Greek imitating Classical Greek forms, which used to be the official language of Greece through much of the 19th and 20th centuries. Modern Greek grammar has preserved many features of Ancient Greek, but has also undergone changes in a similar direction as many other modern Indo-European languages, from more synthetic to more analytic structures.
The nouns of the German language have several properties, some unique. As in many related Indo-European languages, German nouns possess a grammatical gender; the three genders are masculine, feminine, and neuter. Words for objects without obvious masculine or feminine characteristics like 'bridge' or 'rock' can be masculine or feminine. German nouns are declined depending on their grammatical case and whether they are singular or plural. German has four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.
German articles are used similarly to the English articles, a and the. However, they are declined differently according to the number, gender and case of their nouns.
The Dutch language in its modern form does not have grammatical cases, and nouns only have singular and plural forms. Many remnants of former case declensions remain in the Dutch language, but few of them are productive. One exception is the genitive case, which is still productive to a certain extent. Although in the spoken language the case system was probably in a state of collapse as early as the 16th century, cases were still prescribed in the written standard up to 1946/1947. This article describes the system in use until then. For a full description of modern Dutch grammar, see Dutch grammar. See also History of Dutch orthography.
Gothic is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five grammatical cases in Gothic with a few traces of an old sixth instrumental case.
Faroese grammar is related and very similar to that of Icelandic. Faroese is an inflected language with three grammatical genders and four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.
Old Norse has three categories of verbs and two categories of nouns. Conjugation and declension are carried out by a mix of inflection and two nonconcatenative morphological processes: umlaut, a backness-based alteration to the root vowel; and ablaut, a replacement of the root vowel, in verbs.
Old High German is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five grammatical cases in Old High German.
Historical linguistics has made tentative postulations about and multiple varyingly different reconstructions of Proto-Germanic grammar, as inherited from Proto-Indo-European grammar. All reconstructed forms are marked with an asterisk (*).
This article concerns the morphology of the Albanian language, including the declension of nouns and adjectives, and the conjugation of verbs. It refers to the Tosk-based Albanian standard regulated by the Academy of Sciences of Albania.
The grammar of Old Saxon is highly inflected, similar to that of Old English or Latin. As an ancient Germanic language, the morphological system of Old Saxon is similar to that of the hypothetical Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections thought to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including characteristically Germanic constructions such as the umlaut. Among living languages, Old Saxon morphology most closely resembles that of modern High German.
This article describes the grammar of the Old Irish language. The grammar of the language has been described with exhaustive detail by various authors, including Thurneysen, Binchy and Bergin, McCone, O'Connell, Stifter, among many others.