How do German articles and adjective endings work and what's the best way to learn them?

For me, getting to grips with adjective endings was a real turning point in my learning of German grammar and immediately made the language make a lot more sense! The concept can be broken down into four tables: the definite article table (the different forms of 'the' which indicate the gender and case of the noun), and three tables for adjective endings (depending on whether the noun follows 'a' or 'the' or doesn't follow an article at all!) Unfortunately the best way I've found of learning these tables is to simply memorise them, which at first may seem daunting and impossible, but becomes easier as you come to put them into practice. The aim of articles is to indicate the gender (masculine/feminine/neuter), number (singular/plural) or the case (nominative/accusative/dative/genitive) of a noun. When this isn't completely clear (e.g. the article indicating both feminine nouns and plural ones is 'die'), adjective endings help to distinguish and give us extra information about the noun. These are especially important when there isn't an article at all, for example 'kaltes Wasser' (cold water). Here's a diagram with the three sets of adjective endings and helpful examples: [can show this diagram on whiteboard]

SB
Answered by Sarah B. German tutor

1936 Views

See similar German GCSE tutors

Related German GCSE answers

All answers ▸

How do cases work?


Which sentence contains the correct word order? A) Jeden Tag spiele ich Tischtennis mit meinen Geschwistern. B) Ich spiele Tischtennis zu Hause mit meinen Geschwistern jeden Tag. C) Jeden Tag ich spiele Tischtennis mit meinen Geschwistern.


(For the oral exam part of the GCSE German paper) - What did you do in the school holidays? (Was hast du waehrend der Schulferien gemacht?)


How do I say ‘I went to Switzerland’?


We're here to help

contact us iconContact ustelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2025

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences