B1 · Adjectives
Adjective endings with no article
kaltes Wasser, guter Wein, frische Brötchen
With no article in front, the adjective takes over the article’s own endings.
German adjective endings answer one question: has the case and gender already been marked? If a der-word has done the job, the adjective adds almost nothing — -e or -en. If nothing stands in front of the noun at all, the adjective has to carry the marking itself, and it takes the endings der would have had.
So der kalte Wein but kalter Wein; das kalte Wasser but kaltes Wasser; die kalte Milch but kalte Milch. The ending has moved from the article to the adjective because there is no article left to hold it.
The third case is ein, which marks the gender in some forms and not in others. Where ein is bare — masculine nominative and neuter nominative and accusative — the adjective steps in: ein kalter Wein, ein kaltes Bier. Everywhere else ein is marked and the adjective relaxes to -e or -en.
Die Form
| kein Artikel, Maskulinum | kalter Wein |
| kein Artikel, Femininum | frische Milch |
| kein Artikel, Neutrum | kaltes Wasser |
| kein Artikel, Plural | frische Brötchen |
| Dativ ohne Artikel | mit kaltem Wasser |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
With no article, the adjective takes the endings der would have had.
Guter Wein ist teuer.Good wine is expensive.
The dative without an article ends in -em or -er.
mit heißem Wasser, aus alter Gewohnheitwith hot water, out of old habit
The plural with no article ends in -e, or -en in the dative.
Wir suchen neue Ideen.We are looking for new ideas.
The genitive is the exception: -en, not -es.
trotz schlechten Wettersdespite bad weather
Genauer hingesehen
Three tables, or one question
Textbooks present three tables — strong, weak and mixed — and they are correct and hard to hold. The single question behind all three is whether the gender and case have already been shown. If yes, the adjective adds -e in the five basic forms and -en everywhere else. If no, it shows them itself.
That reduces the work to knowing the der forms cold, which is needed anyway. Der, die, das, den, dem, des — strip the d and what remains is the ending the adjective takes when nothing else marks the noun. Des is the one exception, where the adjective takes -en instead.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
-
the genitive has no article
the adjective takes -en, not -es.
die Farbe frischen Blutesthe colour of fresh blood
The noun already carries an -s, so the adjective does not repeat the marking.
-
viel, wenig, etwas or mehr stands in front
they do not count as articles and the adjective still marks the case.
viel frisches Obsta lot of fresh fruit
They give a quantity, not a gender.
Woran man es erkennt
- kein Artikel
- mit
- aus
- bei
- viel
- wenig
- etwas
Beispielsätze
Ich trinke gern schwarzen Kaffee.I like drinking black coffee.
Frische Luft tut gut.Fresh air does you good.
Wir haben kaltes Wetter.We have cold weather.
Sie kocht mit frischem Gemüse.She cooks with fresh vegetables.
Er hat große Pläne.He has big plans.
Noch 6 Beispielsätze
Heißer Tee hilft.Hot tea helps.
Wir brauchen neues Personal.We need new staff.
Mit freundlichen GrüßenYours sincerely
Sie hat blaue Augen.She has blue eyes.
Bei schönem Wetter gehen wir raus.If the weather is nice we will go out.
Guten Morgen!Good morning!
Besonderheiten (2)
-
The greetings are accusative
<z>Guten Morgen, guten Tag, gute Nacht, guten Appetit</z> are all accusative, because they are the remains of a longer sentence: <z>Ich wünsche dir einen guten Tag.</z> Nobody says the whole thing any more, and the ending is the fossil that proves it was once there.
-
It is most common on menus and labels
The article-free form is where German writes without a determiner: menus (<z>gebratener Fisch</z>), recipes (<z>mit frischer Petersilie</z>) and letter closings (<z>mit freundlichen Grüßen</z>). Reading a menu is genuinely good practice for exactly this table.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
With no article in front, the adjective has to say what den would have said — masculine accusative, so -en. Writing -e leaves the phrase unmarked and reads as a plural, which is why schwarze Kaffee sounds like several coffees. The reliable habit is to ask which article would have stood there and copy its ending.
No article: the adjective wears der’s ending.
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