Learning Adjective and Color Endings in German

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

With indefinite article (eine, kein, mein) - Nom. case

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).

*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).