Adjective endings without articles

In brief

When a German noun has no article or other determiner, an adjective before it usually carries an ending that signals gender, number and case: frischer Kaffee, frische Milch, frisches Brot. English adjectives do not change this way, so the ending is easy to forget.

Form

No article + adjective with a strong ending + noun. Nominative (masculine/feminine/neuter/plural): -er/-e/-es/-e; accusative: -en/-e/-es/-e; dative: -em/-er/-em/-en; genitive: -en/-er/-en/-er.

Usage

• Use these endings with uncountable nouns and bare plurals, such as kaltes Wasser or frische Äpfel.
• Choose the ending from the noun’s gender, number and role in the sentence: mit frischer Milch uses dative feminine.
• In the genitive, masculine and neuter adjectives take -en even without an article: wegen schlechten Wetters.

Examples

• Frischer Kaffee steht auf dem Tisch. — Fresh coffee is on the table.
• Ich trinke kaltes Wasser. — I’m drinking cold water.
• Mit frischer Milch schmeckt der Kaffee besser. — Coffee tastes better with fresh milk.
• Wegen schlechten Wetters bleiben wir zu Hause. — We’re staying home because of bad weather.

Common mistake

❌ Ich trinke kalt Wasser.

✅ Ich trinke kaltes Wasser.

Unlike English cold water, German needs an adjective ending here: Wasser is neuter and accusative, so kalt becomes kaltes.

Remember

No article? The adjective usually has to show the case itself.