Declination of German adjectives seems to be very difficult. Those who studied English suffer especially: in it, as you know, adjectives are not declined at all. However, if we compare German with Russian, then it turns out that everything is not so scary.
In Russian, adjective declension is carried out according to three main types, and the first has three more varieties: hard, soft and mixed declension. The latter has three more types depending on the last consonant in the root.
Familiarizing yourself with the rules of the Russian language helps most language learners understand the German adjective declension faster and easier. After such an acquaintance, the German language seems easier and more understandable, and even sympathy appears for those who are forced to learn this "terrible" Russian.
There is one fundamental difference: if in Russian the declension of adjectives depends on the word itself (on its gender, number and case), then in German, in addition to this, it also depends on the article, which, as you know, has analogues in Russian no.
Declination of German adjectives can be divided into three types:
- Weak - it really is"weak", the form of the adjective almost does not change. This declension is applied after the definite article - the article mostly changes.
- Strong declension - after the indefinite article and pronouns meaning some kind of "uncertainty".
- Mixed declension - if the article is missing.
Here we look at the weak declension of adjectives
His rules are quite simple. As you can see in the table, most adjectives end in -en, the rest end in -e. This type of declension is inherent only to adjectives that are used after:
- The definite article (der, die, das).
- After pronouns that are similar to the definite article: diser (this), jener (that), jeder (each), welcher (what), solcher (such), mancher (other), derselbe (the same), derjenige (the same one). Of course, these demonstrative pronouns also change by gender. Here they are all given in the masculine gender.
As you study this information, notice how the endings of definite articles and nouns change. As you can see, the declension of adjectives is the easiest to remember. Another important point is the "Plural" column. In this number, the adjectives that come after the following words are declined according to the weak type:
- The definite article (der, die, das).
- The same pronouns as above and some others. Of course, these plural pronouns will have other forms: diese (these), jede (those), welche (what), alle (each),beide (both), solche (such), manche (some), dieselben (the same), diejenigen (the same), sämtliche (all).
- And also (pay attention!) after the pronoun kein and such as mein (mine), unser (our), as well as other possessive pronouns. Here a natural question arises: how do adjectives in the singular decline after such pronouns? For example, what would be meine schöne Frau (my beautiful woman) in the dative case? We answer: in any reference book, look at the table of mixed declension, because after these pronouns adjectives in units. numbers are inclined precisely according to the mixed type.
| m. gender | w. gender | cf. gender |
Plural number |
|
| N | Der alt e Mann | Die schön e Frau | Das neu e Haus | Die breit en Fenster |
| G | Des alt en Mann es | Der schön en Frau | Des neu en Hauses | Der breit en Fenster |
| D | Dem alt en Mann | Der schön en Frau | Dem neu en Haus | Den breit en Fenster |
| A | Den alt en Mann | Die schön e Frau | Das neu e Haus | Die breit en Fenster |
After that, in any German reference booklanguage see other tables:
- Declination of adjectives in the singular in the absence of an article (strong declension).
- Table of adjective declension in the singular after the indefinite article (mixed declension).
- It is also worth looking at the plural declension of adjectives separately, although it can also refer to the two types already mentioned earlier: weak and strong. After the indefinite (weak declension - we have already given it in the table) and the definite article (strong declension).
- Declination of substantiated adjectives.
Please note that there are patterns in adjective declensions: somewhere, one way or another, there must be endings of the definite article. In the table above, adjectives already have a definite article in front of them. Therefore, adjectives no longer need their endings, which is why the rules for weak declension are so simple. And vice versa, with a strong declension, when there is no article at all before adjectives, the endings of adjectives change like the endings of a definite article.
And some tips on how to remember these dry tables:
- Learn the declension of the definite article in detail.
- Read this article and go through the tables in the handbook carefully once and take the test - there are enough of them on the Internet. After you do or don't complete the tasks for finding the correct form of the adjective, you will feel the need to memorize it all, and you will alsoknow where to study adjective declensions more carefully. The secret of any effective learning is: first the problem, then the solution. Not vice versa.
- Take the artistic text in German. It can be any text on a topic of interest to you with parallel translation. Try to compile all the declination tables yourself, and then compare them with the reference book. This will take time, but after that you will most likely no longer need to look at the reference book to find out how this or that adjective is declined.
