Adjective Endings in German (basic)

This entry was created to explain intricacies of the German language.

Refer to this chart as a guide for adjective endings:

	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
nominative	(r)	e	(s)	e
accusative	n	e	(s)	e
dative	m	r	m	n
genitive	s	r	s	r

Wait, what?! Why are there parentheses? What does that mean? What am I supposed to do? Ahhhhh!
Fear not, my pupils of philology! There are little things called ein words, and they pretty much explain themselves. These are the adjectives that end in -ein, of course, but they also include a few other words that follow that pattern:
kein, mein, dein, sein, unser, euer, ihr, Ihr, and let's not forget ein.
These words are the ones to which those parenthesized letters do not apply. Or the ones to which the parentheses do apply.
In other words, you would never use "einer" to modify a noun in the nominative case.

Okay... can you give an example?
Ein Bus kommt. (A bus is coming.)
Eine Blume wächst. (A flower is growing.)

Now, I'm pretty sure the nominative case is not what you came here for.
So, my friends, stand by and watch some grammatical linguistics. I'll try to keep the examples basic so that you can see what's being explained without worrying about other rules.

Side note: when you have an adjective in the predicate, it's called a predicate adjective. You wouldn't believe how creative grammarians are when they name things. In predicate adjectives, you don't worry about cases. The case is nominative, although it is probably easier to think of it this way: just use the stem of the adjective, with no endings.

The bus is yellow. Der Bus ist gelb. 

The tree is tall. Der Baum ist groß.  

Get it?

Nominative.
masculine: Der Tisch ist rund. The table is round. Ein Bleistift ist spitz. A pencil is pointy.
feminine: Die Frau ist klug. The woman is smart. Eine kluge Frau schreibt. The smart woman is writing.
neuter: Das Wetter ist schön. The weather is nice. Ein Auto fährt. A car is driving.
plural: Keine Fische sind Säugetiere. No fish are mammals. Rote Schuhen sind schick. Red shoes are cool.

Accusative.
masculine: Ich habe einen Bruder. I have a brother. Du hast den Pulli. You have the sweater.
feminine: Du hast die Tasche. You have the bag. Ich habe deine Jacke. I have your jacket.
neuter: Hast du das Geld? Do you have the money? Ich habe ein Buch. I have a book.
plural: Du hast die Blumen. You have the flowers. Wir haben keine Papiere. We don't have (any) papers.

Dative.
masculine: Ich gebe meinem Bruder Geld. I give my brother money. Du gibst dem Lehrer einen Apfel. You give the teacher an apple.
feminine: Du gibst der Lehrerin einen Apfel. You give the teacher an apple. Wir geben einer Klasse eine Tour. We give the class a tour.
neuter: Ich gebe dem Restaurant mein Geld. I give the restaurant my money. Wir kaufen dem Kind Shuhen. We buy the kid shoes.
plural: Wir bringen den Kindern Süßigkeiten. We bring the kids candy. Wir bringen keinen Kindern Kuchen. We don't bring kids cake-- literally "We bring cake to no children."

Genitive.
masculine: Das ist der Hand des Lehrers. That is the teacher's hand.  Der Bruder meines Vaters ist mein Onkel. The brother of my father is my uncle.
feminine: Meine Tante ist die Schwester meiner Mama. My aunt is the sister of my mom. Die Blätter der Pflanze sind essbar. The leaves of the plant are edible.
neuter: Die Blätter des Buches sind dick. The pages of the book are thick. Die Handlung meines Lieblingsfilms ist lustig. The plot of my favorite film is funny.
plural: Die Lehrer dieser Schulen sind nicht zufrieden. The teachers at these schools are not happy. Die Eltern meiner Eltern sind mein Großeltern. The parents of my parents are my grandparents.

Check yo self before you wreck yo self. Or, the importance of correct grammar and perhaps an editor.

This is not a confession. This is a public service announcement.

I am a grammar snob. I used to think I wasn't. Of course I make mistakes myself, but in writing, interviews, and formal settings, I'm extremely cautious. Sometimes, those little tiny errors really matter.

There is one common mistake I hear all the time. I never realized just how bad it was until I was seeing Richard Burr's campaign ads multiple times a day. My friends, I present the commercial:

"As a father, I know Richard Burr is concerned about his children's future."

Alex Gonzales, College Student (by the way, Alex is a female)

Alex, I don't know you, but I'm pretty sure you're not a father. Had I committed such a grammar crime, every single one of my professors would have been on my case. This is an example of a dangling modifier. Don't get caught in a trap because of it.

Examples:

1. As a criminal, I think OJ Simpson has gotten some bad press. (Oh yeah? What are your criminal standards like? Are you incriminating yourself?)
2. Having been painted, you should enjoy your room a lot more. (You got painted? Take a bath.)
3. After getting completely trashed, Anna needed to make repairs to her house. (Working with a hangover is no fun.)
4. Having been beaten, Beth put the eggs in the mixing bowl. (Beth needs to get help. I know this example is not funny, but this is one of the cases that may cause alarm.)

A dangling modifier doesn't correspond clearly with what it's supposed to modify. Sure, we can assume that the house got painted, but why make your poor audience guess?

I think you get the idea. Luckily, Burr and Ms. Gonzales didn't make our work too hard. We understand that he is a father and she is a supporter.

I hope you, dear reader, will watch your modifiers and try to dangle them as infrequently as possible.

I can just hear it now: (cue dramatic music) Did you know that Richard Burr dangles his modifiers?