VII Adjectives and adverbs
43 Predicative and attributive adjectives
43.1 Adjectives describe nouns. If used predicatively, that is if they are placed after the finite
verb (see 5.1), very often some form of sein, they do not take any endings:
Das Buch war ganz interessant.
The book was really interesting.Die Äpfel sind jetzt reif.
The apples are ripe now.Ihre Stimme klingt fröhlich.
Her voice sounds cheerful.43.2 However, if used attributively, i.e. before the noun they describe, adjectives are
declined:
Hast du das neue Plakat gesehen?
Have you seen the new poster?Die reifen Äpfel schmecken wirklich gut.
The ripe apples taste really nice.43.3 Attributive adjectives can have a der, ein or zero declension. All three declensions
are regular and involve no more than minor variations in endings. The particular
declension used depends on what determiner (if any) precedes the adjective
(see 24 ).
44 Declension following der etc.
In this section and sections 45 and 46 it should be noted that the declension we are
concerned with is not that of der, ein, etc., but that of the following adjective.The ‘declension following der’ is sometimes also referred to as the ‘weak’ declension,
since the adjective does not carry much information about the case and gender of the
noun: this information is given to a greater extent by the form of der, ein, etc. (not to
be confused with the ‘weak’ declension of nouns, see 28.2). The various forms of the
adjective ending following der are shown in italics: