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In this post we’ll learn some basic German vocabulary and grammar that you can use to describe people.
Schön! Beautiful!
Let’s start with some basic adjectives that you can use to describe people’s physical characteristics: groß tall, also big; klein short, also short; jung young; alt old; dick fat; dünn thin; schön beautiful; hässlich ugly. Let’s see some examples:
- Die Frau ist groß/ schlank.
The woman is tall/ thin. - Sie ist eine große Frau. Die große Frau meine Schwester.
She is a tall woman. The tall woman is my sister. - Der Mann ist klein/ dick.
The man is short/ fat. - Er ist ein kleiner Mann. Der kleine Mann ist der Lehrer.
He is a short man. The short man is the teacher. - Mein Großvater / Meine Großmutter ist alt.
My grandfather/My grandmother is old. - Der Junge ist jung/ klein.
The boy is young. - Wir haben einen kleinen Sohn.
We have a young (little) son.
GRAMMAR TIP! Did you notice that German adjectives sometimes take different endings? Compare:
- Die Frau ist groß.
The woman is tall. - Sie ist eine große Frau.
She is a tall woman. - Ich habe einen großen Mann.
I have a tall husband.
We’ve added a quick note about German adjective endings at the bottom of this post. Check it out if you’d like to know more!
Froh oder Traurig? Happy or Sad?
Now let’s see a few more adjectives that describe people’s moods or emotions or other non-physical characteristics: glücklich/zufrieden happy; traurig sad; intelligent intelligent; dumm foolish; interessant interesting; beliebt popular; sportlich sporty, athletic; faul lazy; stark strong; schwach weak; mutig/tapfer brave; schüchtern shy; gesprächig talkative; ruhig quiet; verheiratet married; Single single; nett, freundlich friendly, nice; unfreundlich unfriendly, mean.
- Die Frau ist intelligent.
The woman is intelligent. - Die Frauen sind intelligent.
The women are intelligent. - Der Mann ist stark.
The man is strong. - Er ist ein starker Mann.
He is a strong man. - Sie ist eine starke Frau.
She is a strong woman. - Die Männer sind stark.
The men are strong. - Meine Schwester ist nett / unfreundlich.
My sister is friendly/ unfriendly. - Mein Bruder ist nett / unfreundlich.
My brother is friendly/mean. - Das Mädchen ist schüchtern.
The girl is shy. - Unsere Töchter sind schüchtern.
Our daughters are shy. - Bist du froh oder traurig?
Are you happy or sad? - Unser Lehrer / Unsere Lehrerin ist interessant.
Our teacher is interesting. - Sie ist eine beliebte Sängerin.
She’s a popular singer. - Der Polizist/die Polizistin ist mutig.
The police officer is brave.
Those Pesky Adjective Endings
The easiest place to put a German adjective is after the verb sein, because its forms never change:
- Der Mann ist klein / stark / dick.
The man is short/ strong/ fat. - Die Männer sind klein / stark / dick.
The men are short/ strong/ fat.
If you use a German adjective right before a noun (as in a short man, the tall teacher, my beautiful daughter…) the adjective is going to take an ending, and that ending depends on a few things. We won’t get into all of it here, but in a quick nutshell:
- After singular der (nominative), die, and das: use the so-called “weak”ending -e: der dicke Mann (the fat man); die starke Frau (the strong woman), das kleine Kind (the small/short child). After plural die, the weak ending is –en: die dicken Männer (the fat men), die starken Frauen (the strong women), die kleinen Kinder (the small/short children).
- After ein(e), mein(e) and other possessives, or kein(e), use the so-called “strong”endings –er for masculine, –e for feminine, and –es for neuter: ein dicker Mann (a fat man), meine starke Frau (my strong wife), kein kleines Kind (no small child). In the plural, the strong ending is –en: meine starken Freunde (my strong friends), keine kleinen Kinder (no small children), unsere kleinen Töchter (our young daughters).
- In other cases (accusative, dative, genitive) after einen, einem, einer, den, dem, der, or des, the ending is always –en: einen kleinen Mann (a short man, accusative), den kleinen Mann (the short man, accusative), einem starken Mädchen([to] a strong girl, dative), der starken Frau ([to] the strong woman, dative), des großen Mannes (of the tall man, genitive).
There’s a bit more to the story than that, but if you keep these three rules in mind, you’ll cover by far the greatest number of circumstances when you want to use a German adjective.
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