Top 20 German Adjectives

20 most important German Adjectives

Here is a list of what we thought are the 20 most important German adjectives. The ending of adjectives can change depending on gender, case and what type of article comes before the adjective. We have shown you these different types of endings in tables below 🙂 German adjectives come before the noun they describe, but when used with a verb it is placed after the verb. You can also read our blog How to use German Adjectives.

Top 20 German Adjectives:

alt	old
glücklich	happy
groß	big, tall
gut	good
jung	young
klein	small, little
klug	clever
kurz	short
lang	long
langsam	slow
leicht	easy
müde	tired
nah	close
nett	nice
neu	new
schnell	fast
schön	beautiful
schwer	difficult
traurig	sad
weit	far

The adjective won’t change its form if placed directly after a verb.

For example:

Dieses Buch ist sehr gut.
Simone malt schön.

But if the adjective is placed before a noun, the ending will change.

For example:

Simone malt schöne Bilder.

And here are the different endings of adjectives:

Adjectives used after the definite article der, die and das:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural all Genders
Nominative	der alte	die alte	das alte	die alten
Accusative	den alten	die alte	das alte	die alten
Dative	dem alten	der alten	dem alten	den alten
Genitive	des alten	der alten	des alten	der alten

Adjectives used after possessive adjectives and the indefinite articles ein and kein:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural all Genders
Nominative	kein alter	keine alte	kein altes	keine alten
Accusative	keinen alten	keine alte	kein altes	keine alten
Dative	keinem alten	keiner alten	keinem alten	keinen alten
Genitive	keines alten	keiner alten	keines alten	keiner alten

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

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural all Genders
Nominative	alter	alte	altes	alte
Accusative	alten	alte	altes	alte
Dative	altem	alter	altem	alten
Genitive	alten	alter	alten	alter