![]() These decline like other adjectives, so "in the greenest forest" is in dem grünsten Wald. Thus "greener" is grüner, "driest" is trockenste, "most suitable" is geeignetste. German adds -er for comparative, and -ste for superlative, to all adjectives, regardless of length. "bigger", "biggest", "greener", "greenest", and use the words "more" and "most" for longer adjectives, e.g. In English, you add -er and -est to short words, e.g. Like English, German has a comparative and a superlative, corresponding to "more" and "most". munter, "cheerful") decline according to the normal pattern. A few adjectives end in -e when not declined, such as weise ("wise") and böse ("evil" or "angry"). Remember at all times not to decline adjectives which come after the noun, as in der Mann ist alt. Using the correct endings allows slightly more freedom in word order than in English - you can say, for example, edelen Wein trinken wir gern, while "fine wine we enjoy" would sound a bit strange. ein, which can refer to more than one case and gender). There is a sort of logic behind the system - if adjectives and qualifiers are to indicate the case and gender of nouns, adjectives must be more explicit in their declension when the qualifiers are absent or ambiguous (e.g. Thus "I know this old town" is ich kenne diese alt e Stadt ( feminine- accusative) while "he lives with the other girl" is er wohnt bei dem ander en Mädchen (neuter-dative). The adjective endings of weak declension are as follows: These qualifiers give away the most information about the case and gender of the noun, so the adjective has to do the least. "Weak" declension is used when the adjective is preceded by the definite article or qualifiers which decline like it, such as the demonstrative pronouns, e.g. Thus "he is an old man" is er ist ein alt er Mann ( masculine- nominative), while "the loyalty of my old friends" is die Treue meiner alt en Freunde ( plural- genitive). The adjective endings of mixed declension are as follows: "Mixed" declension is used when the adjective is preceded by the indefinite article or other qualifiers which decline like it, such as possessive pronouns ( mein, dein etc). Thus for the examples above, the adjective endings are wir trinken gern edel en Wein ( Wein being masculine- accusative) kalt es Wasser ist gefährlich ( Wasser being neuter- nominative) ich lebe unter mächtig en Männern ( Männern being plural- dative). Note the similarity between the endings and the corresponding definite or indefinite article, e.g. The adjective endings of strong declension are as follows: Phrases which require this form of declension are such things as "We enjoy fine wine", "Cold water is dangerous", "I live among powerful men" - note the absence of qualifiers such as "the". Thus strong declension is the most explicit form. ![]() It is called strong because, in the absence of qualifiers to indicate the noun's case and gender, the adjective must take on the job. "Strong" declension is used when the adjective is not preceded by any sort of qualifier (words like "the" or "these"). However it is not really so simple, to a large part because of the three types of declension. The correct adjective endings correlate somewhat with the correct endings of the qualifiers, so it is de n alte n Mann and ein e alt e Frau. The difficulty arises from the fact that when declining an adjective, three things must be taken into account: case, gender, and the type of declension ("strong", "mixed" or "weak"). ![]() Unfortunately there is a ring of truth about this if you find German grammar doesn't agree with you, declension of adjectives may seem the most disagreeable topic of all. Mark Twain wrote that the foreigner would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective. ![]() In this case they are not declined, which explains the discrepancy between alt/alte. Of course you can them also use them indirectly, at the end of a phrase, as in "the man is old" - der Mann ist alt. When used in this way, they must be given the correct ending for case and gender - this is known as " declension", although it actually involves making the word longer. In German, adjectives come before the noun they are qualifying, just like in English - "the old man" is der alte Mann. ![]()
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