Adjectiv declension

You know that in German a noun always uses a certain case (nominative, dative, etc.). In
German grammar the case is indicated by the definite article. From this arises the first of
both the principles for the declension of the adjective:

1. Case-endings are in principle identical with the definite article, but without the “d”.

… Case Endings

These case-endings are sometimes also used by other accompanying words, we call them
then strong endings. Strong endings always indicate the case! They are also used by the
demonstrative pronouns (dieser, dieses…), and often as well by the indefinite articles (ein,
eine …) and sometimes by the possessive pronouns (mein, dein, sein…). They can also be
used by the adjectives.

But when do accompanying words use strong endings and

when do adjectives use strong endings?
This questions brings us to the second principle, which helps us with the learning of German
adjective endings:

2. In an “adjective-noun” (noun + adjective) there is always EXACTLY ONE case-ending.

What does this mean exactly? You know, that the definite article does not always precedes
the noun, it can be another accompanying word or sometimes there isn’t even an
accompanying word or article at all. Let’s have a look at an example with a noun with a
possessive pronoun:

„Mein Computer war sehr teuer.“ (My computer was very expensive)

The possessive pronoun mein doesn’t always have a case-ending, for instance not in the
nominative with a masculine noun:
When this case-ending is not used by the accompanying word, it has to be used by
the adjective.

The adjective then has the so called strong adjective-ending, thus the case-ending, which
we already know from the definite articles:

In akkusativ maskulin there is an extra -n on the end of adjective.

den grossen Tisch

einen grossen Tisch

In plural if the adjective doesn’t have a strong ending, it has and extra -n on the end.

nette Leute – die netten Leute

So, you don’t really have to learn a new table, because you already know the articles with
their case-endings. And every time there is no case-ending in the words which precede the
adjective, there has to be a case-ending in the adjective; precisely as I explained to you
above.