Practice German Adjective Endings

Hello everyone,

spring is coming and that means it’s time to do some working out to get the body in a nice beach shape.  Wait, that’s not what people mean by beach body, is it?
Anyway, a beach body is nice, but of course we all want another thing even morererer… the perfect beach German.
And that’s why we’ll also do a little work out. And this time we’ll train something that MANY of you have neglected:

Adjective Endings

Yeah, you can sigh all you want. Deep inside you know it’s time. And you can do it. It’s gonna be tough but you got what it takes. Endings are beasts but they can’t best you.  You will prevail. You will stand tall. I can see the sparkle in your eye. That’s a winner right there. You’re a freaking Spartaaaaaaaaaaan.
Uhm…. sorry, I think I lost it for a second :).
But yeah… are you ready to end some adjectives?
Perfect!

Quick heads-up: the marking colors I am using later on are messed up in darkmode. I just noticed and don’t have time to clean this up right now. Apologies!

Adjective Endings – How it works

We’ll use the same kind of work-out that we used a while back for the written past. I’ll give you a sentence in which the adjective ending(s) missing and you have to fill them in. You can either write it down but it’s actually better if you read the sentence out loud because getting used to the rhythm is actually a BIG deal for adjective endings. The solution is right next to the example in audio form. I’ll say the adjective with the proper ending first, and then the whole sentence in normal speed, so you don’t only work on your endings but also on your listening skills.

The examples are super messy. Hah… what a statement :).
But yeah, they’re super messy in so far as that they’re not grouped up in any way. Weak, strong and mixed declension, genders, the cases – they’re all mixed together.
Now you’re all freaking out because it sounds super difficult, but first of all, that’s how it is in real life, too. And second of all, it’s actually not that bad. Because you should get about 70% correct WITHOUT caring about what case you’re looking or what declension it is.

We’ve talked about this in detail in our mini series on adjective endings but I’ll give you the essence here real quick.

Step 1

Add an “e”. You ALWAYS have to do that. !!!! No thinking required!!!!
Adjectives always get at least an “e” and it’s a HUGE difference in rhythm. In English you say

• h2one big cold beer
• bam bam bam bam

In German, it is

• ein großes kaltes Bier
• bam babam babam bam

Get used to the German rhythm. It makes a HUUUUGE difference and the best thing about it is… it’ll get you 1/3 correct answers in this exercise (in real life a bit more).  1/3 correct without ANY THOUGHT? That’s a pretty sweet deal. If you want to read more on that, check out this article:

• German Adjective Endings Explained – 1

Step 2

Check out the article of the word. If it is weird, then add an “n” to the “e”. Weird articles are all those that are not “natural”. So all those ending in -en or –em or -es like keinem or seinen or den and also der for feminine words.
For the natural articles, add nothing.
Let’s do a couple of quick examples…

1. der groß__ Mann
2. der groß___ Frau

The first one is der Mann, that’s a natural article and so we won’t add “n” and get “große”. Correct. In the second one, we have Frau, which is feminine but the article is “der”. That’s a weird article for Frau so we’re gonna add “n”. Großen. And that’s correct. And if there’s no article… well.. then just give it a guess :).
For a more detailed look with some statistics to back up the system, check out this post:

• German Adjective Endings Explained – 2

This step should get you  70% to 75% correct answers. Enough to pass a test. And you still didn’t have to think about cases or weak or strong or all that crap. I think, that’s pretty neat. The only step that really needs some brain work is the last one.

Step 3

Check out, if the article marks the gender (and the case). If not, add the marker to the adjective. It can not be summed up in a nutshell. So if you feel ready for some nerdy stuff, you can read it here.

• German Adjectives Endings – 3

Even if you only understand half of it, that’s fine. remember – the first two steps are enough to pass a test.

Now, you might be like “Okay, okay Emanuel but there’s one problem… I don’t know the gender of stuff.”
Yes, gender gets in the way of these kinds of exercises. And that’s why we’ll take it out of the equation by color coding it :)

masculine –  feminine  –  neuter

Cool.
Now,  you will most likely make mistakes. Don’t get frustrated. Think about the mistake, and if you can’t figure out what you did wrong, then ask me. Let’s talk about it in the comments and clear it up.

And one quick fix: adjectives after (et)was ALWAYS get “es”. Was Schönes, was Großes, was Grünes – get used to that rhythm :).
And now, I’d say…

viel Spaß :)
(Of course you don’t have to do it all at once. Half of it at a time might be enough.)

Adjective Endings – The Exercise

Apologies for the varying audio quality. My mic was very noisy and I had to do quite a bit of processing. I hope it’s bearable :).
Oh, I chose not to add a full translation but rather just the words that I think might be new.

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Phew you made it. Awesome. How did you do? How many did you get right? Let me know in the comments. And let me know if you have any questions or things you’re struggling with. We’ll do a part two of this exercise, and part one is also to find the things that are unclear.
Oh and also … how are you liking this format? Is it okay? Is it too confusing? Looking forward to your feedback.
I hope you enjoyed it, as far as that’s possible with adjective endings.
Ich wünsche euch eine schön___ Woche und bis nächst___ Mal :).