German adjectives, like English ones, usually go in front of the noun they modify: “der gute Mann” (the good man), “das große Haus” (the big house/building), “die schöne Dame” (the pretty lady).
Unlike English adjectives, a German adjective in front of a noun has to have an ending (-e in the examples above). Just what that ending will be depends on several factors, including gender (der, die, das) and case (nominative, accusative, dative).
But most of the time the ending is an –e or an –en (in the plural). With ein-words, the ending varies according to the modified noun’s gender (see below).
Look at the following table for the adjective endings in the nominative (subject) case:
With definite article (der, die, das) – Nominative case
| Masculine der |
Feminine die |
Neuter das |
Plural die |
| der neu Wagen the new car |
die schön Stadt the beautiful city |
das alt Auto the old car |
die neu Bücher the new books |
With indefinite article (eine, kein, mein) – Nom. case
| Masculine ein |
Feminine eine |
Neuter ein |
Plural keine |
| ein neu Wagen a new car |
eine schön Stadt a beautiful city |
ein alt Auto an old car |
keine neu Bücher no new books |
Note that with ein-words, since the article may not tell us the gender of the following noun, the adjective ending often does this instead (-es = das, –er = der; see above).
As in English, a German adjective can also come after the verb (predicate adjective): “Das Haus ist groß.” (The house is large.) In such cases, the adjective will have NO ending.
Farben (Colors)
The German words for colors usually function as adjectives and take the normal adjective endings (but see exceptions below). In certain situations, colors can also be nouns and are thus capitalized: “eine Bluse in Blau” (a blouse in blue); “das Blaue vom Himmel versprechen” (to promise heaven and earth, lit., “the blue of the heavens”).
The chart below shows some of the more common colors with sample phrases. You’ll learn that the colors in “feeling blue” or “seeing red” may not mean the same thing in German. A black eye in German is ” blau” (blue).
| Farbe | Color | Color Phrases with Adjective Endings |
| rot | red | der rote Wagen (the red car), der Wagen ist rot |
| rosa | pink | die rosa Rosen (the pink roses)* |
| blau | blue | ein blaues Auge (a black eye), er ist blau (he’s drunk) |
| hell- blau |
light blue |
die hellblaue Bluse (the light blue blouse)** |
| dunkel- blau |
dark blue |
die dunkelblaue Bluse (the dark blue blouse) |
| grün | green | der grüne Hut (the green hat) |
| gelb | yellow | die gelben Seiten (yellow pages), ein gelbes Auto |
| weiß | white | das weiße Papier (the white paper) |
| schwarz | black | der schwarze Koffer (the black suitcase) |
| *Colors ending in -a (lila, rosa) do not take the normal adjective endings. **Light or dark colors are preceded by hell- (light) or dunkel- (dark), as in hellgrün (light green) or dunkelgrün (dark green). |
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