Lesson 22 · German A1-2

Adjective Endings

Adjektivendungen

This is genuinely the first A2-level grammar in the course - a small step up in complexity from everything before it. Take it slowly, and remember there's always a safe fallback if you're unsure.

Today's win: use an adjective safely after sein with no ending at all, and recognize the -e/-en pattern for adjectives placed directly before a noun.

The safe fallback: adjectives after sein need no ending

Whenever an adjective follows a form of sein rather than sitting directly in front of a noun, it never changes shape - this is the lowest-risk way to describe things:

Die Wohnung ist groß. (no ending, always safe)
Der Tag ist schön.

If you're ever unsure how to end an adjective, restructure your sentence this way instead of guessing in front of the noun.

Adjective directly before a noun: mostly -e, with one exception

After der/die/das, the adjective ending is almost always -e - except masculine accusative, which takes -en, echoing der→den from Lesson 7:

der schöne Tag (nominative)
den schönen Tag (accusative - masculine only)
die schöne Wohnung (feminine, either case)

Full table including ein/eine: Reference - Adjective Endings.

A few useful adjectives

großbigkleinsmall
teuerexpensivebilligcheap

These are directly useful back in the apartment-hunting context from Lesson 8: eine teure Wohnung (an expensive apartment), ein kleines Zimmer (a small room).

Try it out loud: describe the apartment or room you're looking for using an adjective after sein (safe), then try the same description with the adjective placed directly before the noun.

Quick recall check

1. "The apartment is big." (predicate, safe form) - Die Wohnung ist ______.

Show answer
groß

2. "the beautiful day" (nominative, masculine) - der schön______ Tag.

Show answer
e

3. "the beautiful day" (accusative, masculine) - den schön______ Tag.

Show answer
en

4. Does an adjective after "ist" need an ending?

Show answer
no

5. What's the German word for "expensive"?

Show answer
teuer

Primary source

Cross-checked against the Goethe-Institut A1 practice materials.

Adjective endings are one of the trickier A2 points - ask your teaching agent to check any sentence you're unsure about.