Grammar

Declension of adjectives in the nominative and accusative cases

There are three patterns of declension for adjectives depending on whether they are accompanied by a definite article, indefinite article or no article.

Declension of adjectives preceded by a definite article
This chart shows you how an adjective's form changes when there is a definite article. The pattern has only the endings -e and -en.

Example:
Wollen Sie die graue oder die schwarze Tastatur?

      Masculine      Feminine
Nominative   der neue Drucker   die neue Tastatur
Accusative   den neuen Drucker   die neue Tastatur
         
    Neuter   Plural
Nominative   das neue Notebook   die neuen Computer
Accusative   das neue Notebook   die neuen Computer

 

Declension of adjectives preceded by an indefinite article
The declension following an indefinite article also applies to the possessive determiners (possessive adjectives) "mein", "dein", "ihr", etc. and the negation article "kein". In the singular in the nominative and accusative cases, the adjective changes to reflect the endings of definite articles. Since the indefinite article has no plural, the adjective endings are shown here using the example of "kein".

Example:
Hier ist Ihr neuer Arbeitsplatz.

      Masculine      Feminine
Nominative   ein neuer Drucker   eine neue Tastatur
Accusative   einen neuen Drucker   eine neue Tastatur
         
    Neuter   Plural
Nominative   ein neues Notebook   keine neuen Computer
Accusative   ein neues Notebook   keine neuen Computer

 

Declension of articles when there is no article
This pattern is common for the plural, but rare in the singular. You need it, for instance, after ordinal numbers "two" and up.
In the nominative and accusatives cases, the adjective changes to reflect the endings of definite articles.

Example:
Jeden Tag gibt es drei warme Gerichte.

      Masculine      Feminine
Nominative   der Drucker
neuer Drucker
  die Tastatur
neue Tastatur
Accusative   den Drucker
neuen Drucker
  die Tastatur
neue Tastatur
         
    Neuter   Plural
Nominative   das Notebook
neues Notebook
  die Computer
neue Computer
Accusative   das Notebook
neues Notebook
  die Computer
neue Computer