German loves™ its case syncretism, so finding the right declension can be a bitch if you don't happen to be a native speaker or somewhere on that level. Here's a table of the articles and their respective adjective agreement to serve as a cheat sheet. Yum, tables :3
With no article
=
strong adjective declension
| | NOM | | ACC | | DAT | | GEN |
masc. sing. | |
Ø | -er |
|
Ø | -en |
|
Ø | -em |
|
Ø | -en |
fem. sing. | |
Ø | -e |
|
Ø | -e |
|
Ø | -er |
|
Ø | -er |
neut. sing. | |
Ø | -es |
|
Ø | -es |
|
Ø | -em |
|
Ø | -en |
plur. | |
Ø | -e |
|
Ø | -e |
|
Ø | -en |
|
Ø | -er |
(Hint: Look at the forms of the definite article below …)
With definite article
=
weak adjective declension
| | NOM | | ACC | | DAT | | GEN |
masc. sing. def. | |
der | -e |
|
den | -en |
|
dem | -en |
|
des | -en |
fem. sing. def. | |
die | -e |
|
die | -e |
|
der | -en |
|
der | -en |
neut. sing. def. | |
das | -e |
|
das | -e |
|
dem | -en |
|
des | -en |
plur. def. | |
die | -en |
|
die | -en |
|
den | -en |
|
der | -en |
With indefinite article
=
mixed adjective declension
| | NOM | | ACC | | DAT | | GEN |
masc. sing. indef. | |
ein | -er |
|
einen | -en |
|
einem | -en |
|
eines | -en |
fem. sing. indef. | |
eine | -e |
|
eine | -e |
|
einer | -en |
|
einer | -en |
neut. sing. indef. | |
ein | -es |
|
ein | -es |
|
einem | -en |
|
eines | -en |
plur. indef. | |
Ø | -e |
|
Ø | -e |
|
Ø | -en |
|
Ø | -er |
plur. indef. neg. | |
keine | -en |
|
keine | -en |
|
keinen | -en |
|
keiner | -en |
Notes
- Kein is the negative form of the indefinite article ein, used to negate noun phrases (from Middle High German dehein):
Ich habe kein Auto 'I don't have a car'
not: *Ich habe nicht ein Auto
but: Ich habe nicht ein Auto 'I don't have one/a single car'.
Ich habe keine Angst 'I'm not scared'
not: *Ich habe nicht Angst
not: *Ich habe nicht eine Angst (Angst 'fear' is uncountable in this context)
- Also consider this list of noun inflection classes, which helps you to determine if there's a suffix going on your noun or not (or optionally, what with historical dative -e) and if so, which one.