Hotel

German Adjectives

To make sure we're all on the same page, adjectives are describing words that tell you more about a person or thing such as appearance or size.

For example:
young
old
beautiful

In German, adjectives change their endings depending on whether the person or thing you are referring to is masculine, feminine or neuter and whether singular or plural. It also depends on the case and whether the adjective is accompanied by a definite article, an indefinite article, or no article at all.

As in English, German adjectives come before the noun they describe. However, if a verb is used, it will come after the verb.

For example:
Das neue Hotel... (The new hotel...) ⇨ the adjective neue is before the noun Hotel
Das Hotel ist neu. (The hotel is new.) ⇨ the adjective neu is after the verb ist

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Adjectives and the Cases

Now as with a lot of things in German, adjectives can change their ending depending on the case of the sentence. Let's have a closer look at how this works with the definite articles der, die and das.

Table: Adjective Endings after the Definite Article

	Nominative	Accusative	Dative
Masculine	-e	-en	-en
Feminine	-e	-e	-en
Neuter	-e	-e	-en
Plural (all genders)	-en	-en	-en

Example sentences:
Der glückliche Gewinner ist Ben. ⇨ The lucky winner is Ben.
Ich habe einen leckeren Kuchen gegessen. ⇨ I ate a delicious cake.
Wir gaben dem netten Zimmermädchen Trinkgeld. ⇨ We gave the nice maid a tip.

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The following table shows the endings for adjectives accompanied by an indefinite article like ein or kein.

Adjective Endings after the Indefinite Article

	Nominative	Accusative	Dative
Masculine	-er	-en	-en
Feminine	-e	-e	-en
Neuter	-es	-es	-en
Plural (all genders)	-en	-en	-en

Example sentences:
Das ist eine gute Idee. ⇨ That's a good idea.
Die Suite hat einen tollen Balkon. ⇨ The suite has a charming balcony.
In einem alten Hotel kann es sehr kalt sein. ⇨ It can be very cold in an old hotel.

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Here are the endings of adjectives when there is no article before the noun. These endings are quite irregular as they allow the adjective to do the work of the missing article by showing the case and gender and whether it's singular and plural.

Adjectives used, when there is no article before the noun:

	Nominative	Accusative	Dative
Masculine	-er	-en	-em
Feminine	-e	-e	-er
Neuter	-es	-es	-em
Plural (all genders)	-e	-e	-en

Example sentences:
Sie sind gute Freunde. ⇨ They are good friends.
Das Zimmer hat kostenloses Internet. ⇨ The room has free Internet access.
Zu gutem Wein esse ich gerne Käse. ⇨ I like eating cheese with good wine.

Tip
Study and practise the above examples on a regular basis. At first you will get it wrong from time to time but that is okay. Learning from mistakes is one of the fastest ways to learn. However, as you get more confident, you will start to instinctively know the correct way to use an adjective in any German sentence.