Strong Endings of the Adjectives
We first studied and memorized the weak endings of the adjectives, which are used when the presence of the definite article or of equivalent pronominal adjectives clearly mark the case of the noun.
However, nouns are not always preceded by determiners.
You may speak of a general case or an indefinite quantity: Good wine is not always expensive, or you may start a letter with: Dear John,
or you may put the possessive genitive in front of the noun: Anna's old car.
In German, you would also use no article in these cases.
In addition, as in English, there is no plural for the indefinite article: This is a good book but These are good books.
It seems only logical that if there is no article at all, the adjective preceding the noun takes over the function of the missing article and identifies the case of the noun by using the set of so-called strong endings.
These strong endings are essentially the endings of the definite article added to the adjective stem! This gives us 5 endings to suggest 24 possible combinations of case, number, and gender.
Here are the strong adjective endings, along with a reminder of the definite article forms they come from:
| Masc. | Fem. | Neuter | Plural | |
| nominative | -er (der) | -e (die) | -es (das) | -e (die) |
| genitive | -en (des) | -er (der) | -en (des) | -er (der) |
| dative | -em (dem) | -er (der) | -em (dem) | -en (den) |
| accusative | -en (den) | -e (die) | -es (das) | -e (die) |
You will see two exceptions to the relationship between the definite article and the strong adjective endings: You would expect a -es < des ending for adjectives preceding maculine and neuter nouns in the genitive singular case. Instead, the strong and weak endings for these forms are the same--or, if you prefer, there is no strong ending at all.
There is a logic behind it! You remember that the genitive singular of masculine and neuter nouns adds -(e)s to the stem (des Pullovers, des Mannes). That means that the genitive is clearly identifiable by the ending of the masculine and neuter nouns.
Examples of the use of the strong adjective forms:
| Masculine - Singular & Plural | ||
| Nominative | roter Wein | rote Weine |
| Genitive | roten Weins | roter Weine |
| Dative | rotem Wein | roten Weinen |
| Accusative | roten Wein | rote Weine |
|
Feminine - Singular & Plural |
||
| Nominative | rote Farbe | rote Farben |
| Genitive | roter Farbe | roter Farben |
| Dative | roter Farbe | roten Farben |
| Accusative | rote Farbe | rote Farben |
|
Neuter - Singular & Plural |
||
| Nominative | liebes Kind | liebe Kinder |
| Genitive | lieben Kindes | lieber Kinder |
| Dative | liebem Kind | lieben Kindern |
| Accusative | liebes Kind | liebe Kinder |