German adjective declensions
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We distinguish four situations:
- If the adjective is all alone behind sein, it is too shy to show an ending.
- If the adjective stands alone with a noun (without an article), it shows strength by using the strong declension.
- If the adjective stands between a definite article and a noun, it only uses the weak declension.
- If the adjective stands between an indefinite article and a noun, it can't really judge the situation, so it uses a mixture of strong and weak declension.
Strong Declension
| (m) | (f) | (n) | pl. | |
| nom. | -er | -e | -es | -e |
| gen. | -en | -er | -en | -er |
| dat. | -em | -er | -em | -en |
| acc. | -en | -e | -es | -e |
Weak Declension
| (m) | (f) | (n) | pl. | |
| nom. | -e | -e | -e | -en |
| gen. | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| dat. | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| acc. | -en | -e | -e | -en |
Mixed Declension
| (m) | (f) | (n) | pl. | |
| nom. | -er | -e | -es | -en |
| gen. | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| dat. | -en | -en | -en | -en |
| acc. | -en | -e | -es | -en |
This looks quite confusing. Let's see whether we can find some regularities:
- In nominative singular, the weak declension is -e, otherwise it's -en.
- If the definite article is the same as in nominative, the weak declension is the same as in nominative, too.
- The strong declension depends on the definite article: DAS/-es, DEM/-em, DEN/-en, DER/-er, DES/-en, DIE/-e
- If the weak declension is -en, so is the mixed one, otherwise it's like the strong declension.
>> languages >> German >> German grammar >> German adjectives
German adjective declensions (dialect case study)
