German Adjective Endings | Adjektivdeklination im Nominativ

Das ist ein Auto. And you can say, das Auto ist alt. But you can also say, das ist ein altes Auto. And as you can see here on top, the adjective ending change. Now the questions are, when do you need to change it? How do you need to change it? And what affects the ending? These are the questions you're going to find answer in this video right now. Die Adjektiv-Deklination, or in English, declension of adjectives, im Nominativ. Hallo and welcome back to Your German Teacher. Ich heiße Luzi, and today we will talk about die Adjektiv-Deklination im Nominativ. A terrible topic. I know, it's probably, I think, one of the worst, one of the most difficult German grammar topics. But, especially if you want to take a B1 exam, you need to know these endings. Before we start with the endings, there's two questions you need to be answered. Two important things you need to know. Nummer eins ist die Frage, wann musst du ein Adjektiv deklinieren? When do you have to decline an adjective? For this, we take the same sentence as before in the intro, das Auto ist alt. Now, we have Auto, Auto is the noun, das Nomen, und alt ist das Adjektiv. And as you can see, the adjective is behind the noun. If we take the second sentence, das ist ein altes Auto, again, we have das Nomen, das Nomen, und wir haben das Adjektiv. We have here the adjective as well. Now, you can see the adjective is in front of the noun. And you can also see the ending of the adjective is changing. So to recap, the whole thing is, if an adjective is behind the noun, if the adjective stands behind the noun, you don't need to touch the adjective at all. It's the original form. It's like the first thing when you learn an adjective, that's the original form of the adjective. So you don't touch it. It's just as you learned it. But if the adjective stands in front of the noun, then you need to change the ending. Die zweite Frage, die zweite Frage ist, was beeinflusst die Endung? What affects the ending? And there we have three points. Nummer eins ist der Genus. Genus is gender. So we have Maskulin, Feminin und Neutrum. Nummer zwei ist der Kasus. Kasus is the case. Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ oder Genitiv. Und Nummer drei ist der Artikel. It also depends on the article, if the article is a definite or a indefinite article. All right, let's start with the adjectives endings, die Adjektivendungen im Nominativ. As you can see here on this table, we do have Genus. Genus is gender. Again, all these three, Maskulin, Neutrum und Feminin und Plural also changes in plural. And then we have the endings for the definite and the indefinite articles. We start with definite articles. Maskulin is E, Neutrum ist auch E, Feminin ist auch E und Plural ist EN. Now, if we have an indefinite article, then it changes a little bit. Maskulin becomes ER, ER, ER, Neutrum ist ES, Feminin ist E und Plural ist auch E. Now, when you look at this table, in most textbooks, actually, it's just written like this. And most students, they do memorize it. This is definitely an option. You can't just memorize these endings in Nominativ. By the way, these are actually the most difficult ones. It will get easier in Akquisitiv, Dativ und Genitiv. These are the following videos, which will come soon. But in Nominativ, these are actually the most difficult ones. But there is actually a second option. And there is a system behind this whole thing. There is actually a concept behind these endings. So it's not just randomly chosen. There is a system and more about the system later in my bonus tip. Machen wir Beispiele. Let's do some examples. We start with Maskulin. Was ist das? Das ist ein Elefant. Now, I can describe this elephant a little bit more in detail. I can say, das ist ein großer Elefant. Das ist ein großer Elefant. And as you can see here, on top of me, I put the whole table with the endings. You can see Maskulin, indefinite article. It's ein großer Elefant, that's an indefinite article. So you have to add the ending er. Now we want to go a little bit further and describe this elephant more in detail. So, for example, you could say, der große Elefant hat zwei Stoßzähne. Just one thing I want to make sure here. We talk about declension of adjectives in Nominativ. Why Nominativ? Because the adjective we use is describing the subject and the subject is always in Nominativ. And you look at this example here, der große Elefant. Der Elefant is the subject and is in Nominativ. So if you describe the subject with an adjective here, groß, then you have to use the declension of adjectives in Nominativ. So all the examples we're going to do right now are adjectives describing the subject, just to make this clear. All right, let's continue. Der große Elefant hat zwei Stoßzähne. Stoßzähne sind tusks. When you check the table again above me, there you can see for definite article, the ending for the adjective is a i, just an i, der große Elefant. Beispiel Neutrum. Was ist das? Das ist ein Handy. Das ist ein kaputtes Handy. Das Handy ist kaputt. Or you can say, das ist ein kaputtes Handy. Again, check the table. Neutrum, indefinite. Ein kaputtes Handy. So you need to add a es ending for the adjective. Now again, describe this cell phone a little bit further. Das kaputte Handy ist jetzt viel billiger. Das kaputte, what you have to add in, check the table. Definite article, das, and it's neutral. So you have to add a i. Das kaputte Handy ist jetzt viel billiger. Ein Beispiel Feminin. Was ist das? Das ist eine Uhr. You can say, das ist eine elegante Uhr. Das ist eine elegante Uhr. More in detail, die elegante Uhr kostet viel Geld. Check the table. Die, definite article, Feminin, Uhr is Feminin. So you have to add a i. Die elegante Uhr kostet viel Geld. Plural, Beispiele im Plural. Was sind das? Das sind Zeitungen. You can say, das sind alte Zeitungen. These are old newspapers. Now, if again, more in detail, you can say, die bla bla bla, Zeitungen sind schwer. Check the table. Definite article, die, im Plural, Zeitungen ist Plural. Also you have to add a i, die alten Zeitungen sind schwer. Bonus tip, die Regeln für die Endungen im Nominativ. All right. Now I'm going to give you the whole system behind those endings. There is a system. And we start with a table again. You see the gender again and the definite article, not the endings, the normal definite articles, which you know already. Der, das, Feminin, die und Plural auch die. And now you see in red these last letters. They are the so-called strong endings. These are they are called strong endings. So the definite article, the last letter of the normal definite article is a strong ending. So masculine is our neuter is S. Feminine is E and Plural is also E. Now, when we add the adjectives endings, these are the endings for the adjectives with definite articles. So there's always E, E, E and in Plural it's E, N. And they are called weak endings. These are all weak endings. It's always E or in Plural it's E, N. Now, important to know when you do have a modified noun, meaning an adjective in front of a noun. So you have to change the ending of the adjective. Then you need either in the article or in the adjective one strong ending. Again, if you have an adjective in front of a noun, so you need to change the ending of the adjective, you need either a definite article with strong endings or indefinite article and strong endings in the adjective. So either both. And there has to be one strong ending. If you have definite article like here on this table now, then you don't need the strong endings. That's why you have these weak endings in the adjective. But when we change this now, we go to the indefinite article. We have EIN, EIN, FEMININE EINE and in Plural there is no article at all. Now, when you look at those endings, the indefinite articles, they do not have a strong ending except FEMININE. FEMININE has the strong E. But MASCULINE and NEUTER and PLURAL, there is no ending at all. So, of course, there is no strong ending. They don't have a strong ending. Again, to recap the definite article and these strong endings, you need to have one. So if you do have an indefinite, an indefinite article plus adjectives, then you need to add those endings. In MASCULINE, in NEUTER and in PLURAL, you need to add this strong ending. They do have a strong ending. Not FEMININE. FEMININE is already strong. EINE, this E is a strong ending, so it gets a weak ending, which is an E. Again, in MASCULINE, the definite article is this R, the strong ending. So if you have an indefinite article, EIN, then the adjective needs to get this R as well. So the ending is ER. NEUTER, S, you also need this in the adjective if you have an indefinite article and in plural as well. OK, that I hope it was not too much, a little bit. But this is actually the whole concept behind it. So you always have one weak and one strong ending. Therefore, if you have a definite article, which do have strong endings, then you can use the weak endings. But if you have a sentence with an indefinite article, EIN, EIN or EINE or no article in plural, then you need this strong ending in the adjective. Tip number two. I do have a second important tip. And of course, there's not only definite and indefinite articles. We do have, for example, also negative article, KEIN, or the possessive article, MEIN, DEIN, SEIN and so on. And these articles, they behave exactly the same like an indefinite article, the same declension as indefinite article. So the adjectives using negative article or the possessive article, they have the same declension as indefinite articles. We make examples. For example, what is this? This is a house. And you can say this is not a small house. This is a big house. This is not a small house. And as you go to the table again, KEIN behaves like an indefinite article. House is neutral. So therefore you have to add this ES. And a second example with a possessive article. This is a woman with a dog. And you can say this is her tired dog. This is her tired dog. Now again, HUND is masculine. IHR behaves like an indefinite article. Therefore you have to add this ER. This is her tired dog. Exceptions. Of course, in German, you always have exceptions. And the exception is in plural. If you have a sentence with the noun in plural, then it's not an indefinite article ending. Das sind, Beispiel, das sind keine kleinen Häuser. Das sind keine kleinen Häuser. And as you can see in the table above me, this is the ending of the definite article. Same goes for plural, a possessive article. Now the woman doesn't have one dog. Now she has three dogs. You can say, das sind ihre müden Hunde. Das sind ihre müden Hunde. Again, in plural, therefore you have to use the definite article ending, which is EN. OK, I called it exceptions. I just called this exceptions. And in a lot of textbooks, you will actually find this. They will explain to you the declension of articles and then they show you this, that possessive article and negative article, they behave like indefinite articles. And the exception is plural. But if you look at this sentence again with the system I just taught you before, then you can see, ihre, you have this strong E already, right? So this ire has the strong E. Therefore, you have to use the declension of the definite article. So this ire here behaves like a definite article. And then it's obvious. Yes, it's a strong ending. So you have to use the EN. Same goes for the example like before. Das sind keine kleinen Häuser. Keine, in plural, this E has already the strong ending. Therefore, it's like a definite article. And therefore, you can use this EN ending for the adjective. And what's the next logic step now? Declension of adjectives in Akkusativ. Thank you very much for watching. Now, if you want to practice this, write down in the comments a sentence with a adjective in front of video. You can describe this video right now using a declension of adjectives.