German Grammar Workbook: Adjective Endings, ein-words, der-words (A2, B1)

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German 101

New York

German 101 is an imprint of Mondial.

Ulrich Becker:

German Grammar Workbook:

Adjective endings, ein-words, der-words

© 2021 Ulrich Becker

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means —electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher or the author, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

ISBN 9781595694287 (Print edition)

ISBN 9781595694744 (Ebook edition – Published with Smashwords)

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Title Page

Abbreviations

acc., accus.  accusative

adj.   adjective

dat.   dative

def.   definite

f, fem.   feminine

gen.   genitive

indef.   indefinite

m, masc.  masculine

n, neut.   neuter

nom.   nominative

pl.   plural

sing.   Singular

Introduction

In order to use adjectives in English phrases like "my black chair, the green book, or happy children", we simply put the basic form of the adjective in front of the noun.

In German, it is a bit more complicated, but if you know the gender of the noun (i.e. if you always memorized the noun with the correct definite article), if you also know what der words and ein words are, and if you study the rules on the next page, you should soon be able to use German adjectives with the correct endings.

Here is a summary of what you need to know to apply the correct adjective ending:

the gender of the noun;

whether the noun is singular or plural;

which of the four grammatical cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative) is applied in the phrase;

whether there is an ein word or a der word in front of the noun, or not.

You will also have to know the grammatical endings of der words and ein words in the four cases, in singular and plural.

I know, this sounds complicated, when you read this for the first time. We will therefore start with an overview of der words and ein words and their declensions and slowly approach the adjective endings after that.

You will find plenty of exercises for each of the rules for the adjective endings. If you study carefully, you will never apply a wrong adjective ending again – I promise!

Ulrich Becker

Adjective Endings: Summary Of Rules

Once you have recognized the grammatical form of the noun, you can apply the following rules for German adjective endings.

(You will find a VISUAL OVERVIEW of these rules on the following two pages.)

I. After der words:

after all der words in nominative singular, the adjective ending is "-e" (masculine, feminine and neuter alike)

after der words in accusative singular, the adjective ending is "-e, except in front of masculine nouns (accusative, singular), where it is -en"

after der words in genitive singular, dative singular, and in plural (all four cases), the adjective ending is "-en"

II. After ein words:

after an ein word in nominative singular (masculine), the adjective ending is "-er"

after an ein word in nominative singular (feminine) and accusative singular (feminine), the adjective ending is "-e"

after an ein word in nominative singular (neuter) and accusative