German adjectives provide more information about something or someone, an occurrence or a condition. They often describe nouns and personal pronouns. Some adjectives can directly govern the grammatical case of the nouns or pronouns that follow them.
Accusative adjectives
Adjectives that describe size and length require the accusative.
Accusative | Adjective | |||||
hoch: | Der Berg ist | 500 Meter | hoch. | |||
lang: | Die Insel ist | einen Kilometer | lang. |
There are other adjectives that govern the accusative case, too.
Accusative | Adjective | |||||
wert: | Es war | einen Versuch | wert. |
Dative adjectives
You already also know some adjectives that require the dative case.
Dative | Adjective | |||||
wichtig: | Das ist | mir | wichtig. | |||
klar: | Das ist | ihm | klar. | |||
peinlich: | Das ist | mir | peinlich. |
Genitive adjectives
There are also adjectives that require the genitive. Some of them precede a genitive object.
Adjective | Genitive | |||||
voll: | Das Wattenmeer ist | voll | ekliger Würmer. |
Sometimes, especially in colloquial speech, the inflected form "voller" is used instead of "voll". "voller" is the genitive plural form.
Adjectives with the genitive are often substituted by other constructions using a preposition + the dative.
Genitive | Wattenmeer ist voller ekliger Würmer. | |
Preposition + dative | Das Wattenmeer ist voll von ekligen Würmern. |