Adjectives in German Grammar

• Predicative adjectives (prädikative Adjektive) come after the verbs sein, bleiben and werden. Predicative adjectives are invariable; this means that their form stays the same regardless of the gender and number of the noun they’re describing.

Example:

🔊 Listen Der Clown ist lustig.

• Adverbial adjectives (adverbiale Adjektive) come after all verbs apart from sein, bleiben and werden. They are also invariable.

Example:

🔊 Listen Der Clown springt lustig herum.

• Attributive adjectives (attributive Adjektive) come before nouns and they have to be declined. This means that we have to change the adjective ending according to the case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and number (singular or plural) of the noun.

Examples:

🔊 Listen Er ist ein sehr lustiger Clown.

nominative case, masculine singular noun = -er ending

So einen lustigen Clown habe ich noch nie gesehen.

accusative case, masculine singular noun = -en ending

Comparative and Superlative Adjectives in German Grammar

German uses comparative adjectives (Steigerungsformen) in the same way as English; to make comparisons or express superlatives.

Like in English, German adjectives have three comparative forms:

• basic (positive Form)
• comparative (Komparativ)
• superlative (Superlativ)

Example:

schön – schöner – am schönsten

basic – comparative – superlative

Comparisons with Basic Adjectives

In German we use basic adjectives with so … wie to make comparisons.

Example:

🔊 Listen Maria läuft so schnell wie Susanne.

We can also use the following structures to make comparisons with basic adjectives:

• genauso … wie
• nicht so … wie
• fast so … wie
• doppelt so … wie
• halb so … wie

Comparatives in German Grammar

The comparative (der Komparativ) compares two people, places or things. To form the comparative in German, we add -er to the basic form of the adjective.

Examples:

schnell → schneller

klein → kleiner

Unlike English, all German adjectives are formed with -er and never with mehr.

Examples:

interessant → interessanter

not: mehr interessant

schwierig → schwieriger

not: mehr schwierig

The comparative is followed by als (= than).

Examples:

Friederike läuft schneller als Maria.

Maria läuft langsamer als gestern.

Superlatives in German Grammar

The superlative (der Superlativ) compares people, places or things against all others in the same group or category. With the superlative, we can express the highest degree of something.

In German, the way we form the superlative depends on the type of adjective:

• Adverbial Adjectives: Superlative with am
  When an adjective describes a verb (but not sein, werden or bleiben), we form the superlative by placing am in front of the adjective and adding the ending -sten.

Example:

Friederike läuft am schnellsten.

• Attributive Adjectives: Superlative with the definite article
  When an adjective comes after a noun we form the superlative by placing the definite article in front of the adjective and adding the ending -ste.

Example:

Sie ist die schnellste Läuferin.

• Predicative Adjectives: Superlative with am or the definite article
  When the adjective follows the verb sein, bleiben or werden we can form the superlative with am or with the definite article.

Examples:

Diese Läuferin ist am schnellsten.

Sie ist die schnellste Läuferin.

Spelling Rules & Irregular Comparatives

Spelling Rules

• One-syllable adjectives often take an umlaut in their comparative forms.

  Example:

  jung – jünger – am jüngsten

• Adjectives that end in d/t or s/ß/x/z usually form the superlative with –est rather than just -st. The e creates an extra syllable to aid pronunciation.

  Examples:

  laut – lauter – am lautesten

  heiß – heißer – am heißesten

• The e of the unstressed ending el/bel is removed in the comparative, but not in the superlative.

  Examples:

  edel – edler – am edelsten

  flexibel – flexibler – am flexibelsten

  But: The e remains when the ending –el is stressed and for the ending ell.

  Examples:

  fidel – fideler – am fidelsten

  originell – origineller – am originellsten

Irregular Comparative Forms

A handful of German adjectives have completely irregular comparative and superlative forms:

Do I need to decline German comparatives?

Yes! We have to decline comparative and superlative adjectives when they come before a noun.

This means that we have to add an ending to the comparative and superlative forms that corresponds to the case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive), gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and number (singular or plural) of the noun.

Examples:

Maria ist eine schnellere Läuferin als Susanne.

comparative ending -er + nominative feminine singular ending -e

Friederike ist eine der schnellsten Läuferinnen in unserer Klasse.

superlative ending -ste + genitive feminine plural ending -n

Learn more about how to decline German adjectives.

At last we hope you master usin adjectives in German, you can get German keyboard for fast translation.