Adjective Endings: Nominative Case

When a German adjective comes before a noun (the attributive position), it must take an ending that agrees with the noun's gender, number, and case. This is one of the most challenging aspects of German grammar, but the system is logical and learnable. In this lesson, we focus on adjective endings in the nominative case — the case used for the subject of a sentence.

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The Three Declension Types

German adjective endings depend on what comes before the adjective:

Type	What precedes the adjective	Also called
Weak	Definite article (der, die, das) or similar	After der-words
Mixed	Indefinite article (ein, eine) or similar	After ein-words
Strong	No article / nothing	No determiner

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Weak Declension: After Definite Articles (Nominative)

When the adjective follows der, die, das, die (plural), or other der-words (dieser, jeder, welcher, jener, alle), the adjective takes weak endings:

Gender	Article + Adjective + Noun	Ending
Masculine	der große Mann	-e
Feminine	die große Frau	-e
Neuter	das große Haus	-e
Plural	die großen Häuser	-en

Pattern: In the nominative with a definite article, the ending is -e for all singular forms and -en for plural.

More Examples

Sentence	Translation
Der kleine Hund schläft.	The small dog is sleeping.
Die neue Lehrerin ist nett.	The new (female) teacher is nice.
Das alte Gebäude wird renoviert.	The old building is being renovated.
Die jungen Leute tanzen.	The young people are dancing.
Dieser rote Apfel schmeckt gut.	This red apple tastes good.
Jede neue Aufgabe ist eine Chance.	Every new task is an opportunity.
Welcher deutsche Film gefällt dir?	Which German film do you like?

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Mixed Declension: After Indefinite Articles (Nominative)

When the adjective follows ein, eine, ein, kein/keine, or possessive articles (mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, Ihr), it takes mixed endings:

Gender	Article + Adjective + Noun	Ending
Masculine	ein großer Mann	-er
Feminine	eine große Frau	-e
Neuter	ein großes Haus	-es
Plural (kein/possessive)	keine großen Häuser	-en

Pattern: For masculine, the ending is -er (showing the gender that ein does not show). For neuter, the ending is -es (again, showing gender). For feminine and plural, the endings are the same as weak declension.

More Examples