Adjective Endings

German adjectives, like English ones, usually go in front of the noun they modify: "der gute Mann" (the good man), "das große Haus" (the big house/building), "die schöne Dame" (the pretty lady). Unlike English adjectives, a German adjective in front of a noun has to have an ending (-e in the examples above). Just what that ending will be depends on several factors, including gender (der, die, das) and case (nominative, accusative, dative). But most of the time the ending is an -e or an -en (in the plural). With ein-words, the ending varies according to the modified noun's gender (see below).

Look at the following table for the adjective endings in the nominative (subject) case:

With definite article (der, die, das) - Nominative case

Masculine der		Feminine die		Neuter das	Plural die
der neue Wagen the new car		die schöne Stadt the beautiful city		das alte Auto the old car	die neuen Bücher the new books

With indefinite article (eine, kein, mein) - Nom. case

Masculine ein	Feminine eine	Neuter ein	Plural keine
ein neuer Wagen a new car	eine schöne Stadt a beautiful city	ein altes Auto an old car	keine neuen Bücher no new books

Note that with ein-words, since the article may not tell us the gender of the following noun, the adjective ending often does this instead (-es = das, -er = der; see above).

As in English, a German adjective can also come after the verb (predicate adjective): "Das Haus ist groß." (The house is large.) In such cases the adjective will have NO ending.