Demonstrative Adjectives
Demonstrative adjectives point to specific things and help listeners identify exactly what you mean. German demonstratives agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they modify, so they show more than just "which one" — they also signal grammatical role.
Key German Demonstratives
The basic German demonstrative adjectives come from forms like dies- (this/these) and jener (that/those), and they follow the strong or weak adjective endings depending on the article. Dies- is common for pointing to something near in time or space, while jener sounds more formal or distant.
Dies- Forms
Use dies- forms to indicate "this" or "these" for things that are relatively close or recently mentioned. They appear as dieser, diese, dieses etc. and take adjective endings that match the gender, number, and case of the noun.
Jener Forms
Use jener forms to point to "that" or "those" when emphasizing distance or contrast. They are less common in everyday speech and also change to jener, jene, jenes etc. with appropriate adjective endings.
Adjective Endings with Demonstratives
Demonstrative adjectives like dieser normally show strong or weak endings depending on whether they function like an article. When a demonstrative acts like a definite article (showing gender, number, and case), the following adjective takes weak endings; if there's no demonstrative and the adjective must show the case, it takes strong endings.
Weak Endings
Weak adjective endings appear when the demonstrative provides the grammatical information, so the adjective endings are mostly minor suffixes like -e or -en. This happens when the demonstrative acts like a determiner similar to der/die/das.
Strong Endings
Strong adjective endings occur when there is no preceding article or demonstrative to show the case, and the adjective must carry that load with endings like -er, -es, -en. If you replace a demonstrative with an indefinite article, the adjective might need strong endings instead.
Summary
Demonstrative adjectives in German point to specific nouns and agree in gender, number, and case. Use dieser for "this/these" near you, jener for more distant "that/those," and pay attention to adjective endings: weak endings follow demonstratives that act like articles, while strong endings appear when the adjective must show case.
Last updated: Sun Sep 14, 2025