Learning German Adjectives and Colors

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  schà ¶ne  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 nouns 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 Masculineder Femininedie Neuterdas Pluraldie der neu Wagenthe new car die schà ¶n Stadtthe beautiful city das alt Autothe old car die neu Bà ¼cherthe new books With  indefinite article  (eine, kein, mein) -  Nom. case Masculineein Feminineeine Neuterein Pluralkeine ein neu Wagena new car eine schà ¶n Stadta beautiful city ein alt Autoan old car keine neu Bà ¼cherno new books 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  Ã‚  das, -er  Ã‚  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.  Youll 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). Farbe Color Color Phrases with Adjective Endings rot red der rote Wagen (the red car), der Wagen ist rot rosa pink die rosa Rosen (the pink roses)* blau blue ein blaues Auge (a black eye), er ist blau (he's drunk) hell-blau lightblue die hellblaue Bluse (the light blue blouse)** dunkel-blau darkblue die dunkelblaue Bluse (the dark blue blouse) grà ¼n green der grà ¼ne Hut (the green hat) gelb yellow die gelben Seiten (yellow pages), ein gelbes Auto weiß white das weiße Papier (the white paper) schwarz black der schwarze Koffer (the black suitcase) *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  hellgrà ¼n  (light green) or  dunkelgrà ¼n  (dark green).