German Adjective Endings — All Three Declensions

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An adjective standing in front of a noun takes an ending. Which one depends on three things at once — the case, the gender of the noun, and what comes before the adjective. That third factor is what gives German its three declension patterns, and it is the part learners usually miss.

1. After der, die, das — the weak endings

The article has already marked the case, so the adjective does almost nothing. This entire pattern uses only two endings.

der gute Mann · den guten Mann · mit dem guten Mann

The shortcut: everything below the nominative row, and the whole plural column, is -en. Learn the top row and let -en cover the rest.

This pattern also applies after dieser, jeder, welcher and alle, because those carry the same case marking as the definite article.

2. After ein, kein, mein — the mixed endings

ein has no ending in three places: masculine nominative, and neuter nominative and accusative. In exactly those three places the adjective has to carry the case marking instead. Everywhere else this pattern is identical to the weak one.

ein guter Mann · ein gutes Buch · einen guten Mann

The same applies after kein and every possessive: mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer.

3. No article at all — the strong endings

With nothing in front of it, the adjective carries the full case marking alone. Its endings look almost exactly like the definite article, which is a useful way to remember them.

guter Kaffee · kaltes Wasser · mit kaltem Wasser

This pattern appears where German naturally drops the article: with mass nouns (Ich trinke gern warmen Kaffee) and with plurals (alte Freunde, mit alten Freunden). You will rarely need it for a singular countable noun, because those almost always take an article.

The rule that saves you most often

Look at the three tables together and one thing stands out: -en fills most of the space. Every dative and genitive form in the weak and mixed patterns is -en. Every plural in those two patterns is -en.

So a practical order of operations:

1. Is it dative or genitive, or plural, after der or ein? → -en. Done.
2. Is it nominative or accusative? → then you need the table, and only the top two rows.
3. Is there no article? → the adjective takes the article's own ending.

Adjectives that change their stem

Three small groups adjust before an ending is added:

Note that sauber keeps its e — das saubere Zimmer. Only teuer reliably drops it.

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