Adjective Declensions

German adjectives work just like English ones, except that they take on case endings when they come right before a noun:

Der Hund ist groß und braun.
The dog is big and brown.

Der große braune Hund bellte mich an.
The big brown dog barked at me.

To understand these endings, you need to be familiar with the "hard" endings for nouns from Section II.3. The rule for adjectives before a noun is this: when there’s no hard ending in the noun or article, add it to the adjective. When there is a hard ending in the noun or article, the adjective takes a “soft” ending as follows:

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative -e -e -e -en
Accusative -en -e -e -en
Dative -en -en -en -en
Genitive -en -en -en -en

The following tables show how this rule is applied. The hard endings are highlighted in yellow, and the “soft” adjective endings are underlined. With a definite article, the adjective ending is always soft:

  TYPE 1: Definite Articles "The nice man / woman / child / children"
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative der nette Mann die nette Frau das nette Kind die netten Kinder
Accusative den netten Mann die nette Frau das nette Kind die netten Kinder
Dative dem netten Mann der netten Frau dem netten Kind den netten Kindern
Genitive des netten Mannes der netten Frau des netten Kindes der netten Kinder

For the indefinite and possessive articles, the adjective endings are the same except for the three places where the article has no hard ending and the adjective has to take it on:

  TYPE 2: Indefinite & Possessive Articles "My little dog / cat / bunny / birds"
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative mein kleiner Hund meine kleine Katze mein kleines Kaninchen meine kleinen Vögel
Accusative meinen kleinen Hund meine kleine Katze mein kleines Kaninchen meine kleinen Vögel
Dative meinem kleinen Hund meiner kleinen Katze meinem kleinen Kaninchen meinen kleinen Vögeln
Genitive meines kleinen Hundes meiner kleinen Katze meines kleinen Kaninchens meiner kleinen Vögel

And with no article ("the taste of hot coffee"), the adjective always takes on the hard ending, except in the three cases where it’s still there on the noun:

  TYPE 3: No Article "hot coffee / cold milk / fresh bread / warm rolls"
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative heißer Kaffee kalte Milch frisches Brot warme Brötchen
Accusative heißen Kaffee kalte Milch frisches Brot warme Brötchen
Dative heißem Kaffee kalter Milch frischem Brot warmen Brötchen
Genitive heißen Kaffees kalter Milch frischen Brotes warmer Brötchen