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Tiscali: German Phrase Finder - German: Adjectives

PHRASES

Adjectives

When adjectives are used before a noun, their endings vary like the words for der and ein, depending on the gender (masculine, feminine or neuter) and whether the noun is plural, and how the noun is used in the sentence (whether it is the subject, object, etc.). Here are examples using the adjective klug - clever

	masculine	feminine
Nominative	der kluge Mann	die kluge Frau
	ein kluger Mann	eine kluge Frau
Accusative	den klugen Mann	die kluge Frau
	einen klugen Mann	eine kluge Frau
Genitive	des klugen Mannes	der klugen Frau
	eines klugen Mannes	einer klugen Frau
Dative	dem klugen Mann	der klugen Frau
	einem klugen Mann	einer klugen Frau

	neuter	plural
Nominative	das kluge Kind	die klugen Männer
	ein kluges Kind	kluge Frauen
Accusative	das kluge Kind	die klugen Männer
	ein kluges Kind	kluge Frauen
Genitive	des klugen Kindes	der klugen Männer
	eines klugen Kindes	kluger Frauen
Dative	dem klugen Kind	den klugen Männern
	einem klugen Kind	klugen Frauen

When the adjective follows the verb, then there is no agreement:

der Mann ist klug
die Frau ist klug
das Kind ist klug

my, your, his, her

These words all take the same endings as for ein and they agree with the noun they accompany, i.e. whether masculine, feminine, neuter, plural and according to the function of the noun (nominative, accusative, etc.):

mein Mann kommt my husband is coming (nom.)
ich liebe meinen Mann I love my husband (acc.)
das Auto meines Mannes my husband's car (gen.)
ich gebe es meinem Mann I give it to my husband (dat.)
meine Kinder kommen my children are coming (nom. pl.)
ich liebe meine Kinder I love my children (acc. pl.)
die Spielsachen meiner Kinder my children's toys (gen. pl.)
ich gebe es meinen Kindern I give it to my children (dat. pl.)

Other words which take these endings are:
dein your (familiar sing.) ; sein his ; ihr her ; unser our ; euer your (familiar plural) ; Ihr your (polite sing. and plural) ; ihr their

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