German Adjectives

This page contains a table including the following: German Adjectives and adverbs. Try to memorize the way they're used because they're very important in communication, and might be very helpful to convey your most important expressions. Make sure to check our Learn German page, which contains several lessons that might help you in your learning process.

In German, an adjective is a word whose main role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition. Some examples are: That is a green tree. I met a very old man. In German adjectives come before the noun they describe (like in English).

English Adjectives German Adjectives
 
That is a tall buildingDas ist ein hohes Gebäude
I met a very old manIch habe einen sehr alten Mann getroffen
The old red building is hereDas alte rote Gebäude ist hier
That's a very nice dressDas ist ein sehr schönes Kleid

German Adjectives (Genders/Number)

In German the use of adjective for the masculine is different than the feminine, also the use of singular is different than the plural, here are some examples in the table below:

Adjective (gender/ number) German Adjectives
 
She is a tall womanSie ist eine grosse Frau
He is a tall manEr ist ein grosser Mann
They are tall womenSie sind grosse Frauen
They are tall menSie sind grosse Männer

The difficulty arises from the fact that when declining an adjective, three things must be taken into account: case, gender, and the type of declension ("strong", "mixed" or "weak").

Strong inflection is used:

  • When no article is used
  • After etwas (some; somewhat), mehr (more)
  • After wenig- (few), viel- (much; many), mehrer- (several; many), all- (all), which also have strong adjective inflection.
  • After personal pronouns other than mir, dir, ihm
  • After number adjectives with no endings

Strong Inflection
 
Nominativeneuerneueneuesneue
Accusativeneuenneueneuesneue
Dativeneuemneuerneuemneuen
Genitiveneuenneuerneuenneuer

The mixed inflection is used after the indefinite article ein-, kein-, and the possessive determiners.

Mixed Inflection
 
Nominativeneuerneueneuesneuen
Accusativeneuenneueneuesneuen
Dativeneuenneuenneuenneuen
Genitiveneuenneuenneuenneuen

Weak inflection is used:

  • After the definite article
  • After derselb- (the same), derjenig- (the one)
  • After dies- (this), jen- (that), jeglich- (any), jed- (every), which decline like the definite article.
  • After manch- (some), solch- (such), welch- (which), which decline like definite article.
  • After mir, dir, ihm
  • After arm (meagre), alt (old), all (all)

Weak Inflection
 
Nominativeneueneueneueneuen
Accusativeneuenneueneueneuen
Dativeneuenneuenneuenneuen
Genitiveneuenneuenneuenneuen

No Ending

Several adjectives take no ending at all:

  • Singular limiting adjectives: wenig, etwas, genug, and viel
  • The plural limiting phrase 'ein Paar'

Below is some vocabulary training for adjectives in German or Deutsch, try to memorize the adjectives below, because they’re very important.

German Adjectives List
 
Angrywütend
Badschlecht
Beautifulschön
Cheapbillig
Cleansauber
Coldkalt
Differentanders
Difficultschwierig
Earlyfrüh
Easyeinfach
Friendlyfreundlich
Goodgut
Heavyschwer
Importantwichtig
Marriedverheiratet
Naturalnatürlich
Nicenett
Openoffen
Politehöflich
Poorarm
Richreich
Sadtraurig
Simpleeinfach
Slowlangsam
Smallklein
Sweetsüß
Tallgroß
Warmwarm
Wellgut
Worseschlechter
Worstam Schlechtesten
Wrongfalsch

More on German Adjectives

Adjectives in German (as well as in English) describe or modify nouns, but in German they should agree in gender and number with the noun they modify. Adjectives forms vary depending on the case (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive).

Note how adjectives take an extra “e” when they’re placed before nouns and a definite article is placed before them in the nominative:

German Adjectives

Masculine: (schnell/ fast): der schnelle Tiger (the fast tiger).

Feminine: (jung/ young): die junge Dame (the young lady).

Neuter: (klug/ smart): das kluge Kind (the smart child).

Plural: (gut/ good): sie sind gute Bücher (they’re good books).

For all the rest of the cases (accusative, dative and genitive) adjectives ending take “en” in the masculine, and “e” in the feminine and neuter.

Accusative: Ich habe den schnellen Tiger gesehen (I have seen the fast tiger), Ich habe die junge Dame gesehen. (I have seen the young lady).

The same thing happens with dative and genitive where the adjective take “en” in the masculine, and “e” in the feminine/ neuter/plural.

Remember that this happens only when we add a definite article der, die, das (the) or the pronouns dieser (this), jener (that), solcher (such), jeder (each), welcher (which).

The plural ending for these weak adjectives is “en” in ALL cases (nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive), which is good news.

Ich habe die schnellen Katzen gesehen (I have seen the fast cats).

Ich habe die jungen Damen gesehen (I have seen the young ladies).

Adjectives proceeded by the indefinite articles (ein/ eine/ ein) or the pronouns such as mein (my, mine), sein (his)… kein (no) have an irregular declension:

Adjetives in German

singular

masculine

feminine

neuter

nominative

ein guter Mann

eine schöne Rose

ein altes Buch

accusative

einen guten Mann

eine schöne Rose

ein altes Buch

dative

einem guten Mann

einer schönen Rose

einem alten Buch

genitive

eines guten Mannes

einer schönen Rose

eines alten Buches

The plural endings for strong adjectives are the same for all three genders:

Plural adjectives

nominative

keine guten Männer

accusative

keine guten Männer

dative

keinen guten Männern

genitive

keiner guten Männer

Below is a list of some common adjectives in German, they’re in their original form, so they’re not yet influenced by any other cases like (accusative, dative, and genitive), so take that into consideration when you put these adjectives in a non nominative case.

For example: Er ist schnell (he is fast). (but) Er ist ein schneller Mann.(note how in the first setences the adjective schnell wasn’t influenced by anything and therefore stayed in its original form, but in the second example “ein” made it take “er” at the end). The same thing may occur to the adjectives below:

List of German Adjectives

ambitious

ehrgeizig

American

Amerikaner

annoying

ärgerlich

bad

schlecht

beautiful

schön

big, large

groß

blonde

blondine

boring

langweilig

brave

tapfer

careless

unbesonnen

cautious

vorsichtig

certain

bestimmt

charming

charmant

cheerful

fröhlich

Chinese

Chinesisch

conceited

eingebildet

conventional

herkömmlich

coward

feigling

crazy, nuts

verrückt, Nüsse

cruel

grausam

difficult

schwierig

disagreeable

unangenehm

dull, boring

dumm, langweilig

easy

leicht

English

Englisch

fake

unecht

fat

Fett

few, a little

wenige, ein wenig

French

Französisch

frequent

häufig

friendly

freundlich

fun, amusing

lustig, amüsant

funny

komisch, komisch

general

General

generous

großzügig

German

Deutsch

good

gut

handsome

hübsch

hard-working

fleißig

high, tall

hoch, hoch

honest

ehrlich

intelligent

intelligent

interesting

interessant

kind

Art

laid-back

entspannend

lazy

faul

little, small

wenig, klein

low, short

niedrig, kurz

mean

niedrig

modest

bescheiden

moody

launisch

naive

naiv

narrow-minded

engstirnig

new

neu

nice (person)

nett

old

alt

perfect

vollkommen

personal

Persönlicher

pious

fromm

polite

höflich

poor

schlecht

possible

möglich

pretty

ziemlich

proud

stolz

rapid, fast

schnell, schnell

realistic

realistisch

recent

neu

reliable

zuverlässig

rich

reich

sad

jämmerlich

selfish

egoistisch

sensitive

empfindlich

shy

schüchtern

silly, dumb

dumm, stumm

skinny

dünn

slender, slim

schlank

slow

langsam

small

klein

Spanish

Spanisch

strict

streng

strong

stark

stubborn

störrisch

talkative

gesprächig

trustworthy

vertrauenswürdig

ugly

hässlich

various

verschieden

weak

schwach

weird

unheimlich

white

weiß

young

jung



I hope the content of this page was useful to you, and that you learned some German Adjectives (Deutsch). Make sure to memorize them to be able to use them in your daily conversation. Also, remember to check out our Learn German page, which contains several lessons that might help you in your learning process.

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