Words and expressions that never have an ending

The words and expressions nichts, wenig, ein wenig, (ein) paar, etwas, genug, viel, derlei, allerlei, mancherlei, deren, dessen are not inflected at all. The genitive case is avoided and replaced by constructs with von, the other cases have the same form as the nominative, even the word ein in ein paar and ein wenig is not inflected as one can see in the following example where they appear in dative and accusative case. Example:

Mit ein paar reifen Früchten und genug frischer Milch schmeckt die Speise viel besser, deren altes Rezept ich Ihnen verrate. Wenn Sie etwas Süßes mögen, können Sie auch ein wenig braunen Zucker hinzufügen.

These uninflected words and expressions do not appear together with determiners (see item 1 in the list below for a definition). The only exception is ein paar which can trade the leading ein in for a determiner, e.g. diese paar alten Klamotten (these few old rags).

Several of these (ein wenig, etwas, genug) are not only used as in the example where they constitute a part of a nominal phrase, but they can also qualify an adjective, thus acting as an adverb: ein wenig mager, etwas unbefriedigend, gut genug. The difference in the syntax is subtle: if there is an additional article or possessive pronoun, only an adverb can be meant, e.g. mein etwas altes Auto (my somewhat old car); if not, some sentences may appear ambiguous, e.g. etwas mageres Fleisch which could either mean “somewhat lean meat” or “some lean meat” with the latter suggesting itself in the first place. In the context of this article, only the usage in the nominal phrase and not as an adverb is meant.

The distinction between “much” and “many” is made in German in nearly the same way as in English: viel (much), wenig (little), ein wenig (a little), viele (many) wenige (few). viel und wenig, used for singular nouns, are both uninflected, whereas viele und wenige are inflected. There are, however, also situations where the inflected viele und wenige appear in the singular, to wit when there is a need to determine the noun with a definite article or possessive pronoun: mein weniges Geld, das viele übrig gebliebene Brot. The inflected forms are also occasionally applied in other contexts, in particular with adjectives or verbs used as neuter nouns, e.g. vieles Gute (synonym of viel Gutes), vieles Lesen (preferred over viel Lesen), but also with some other nouns, e.g. ohne viele Mühe or Vielen Dank!.

Adjectives ending with -er derived from geographical names (e.g. Münchner, Brandenburger, Schweizer) are not declined either and behave similarly to the expressions explained in this section. They do, however, sometimes appear with determiners, and the genitive is avoided only when a cluster of noun-like words would obscure the cases. There are also nouns denoting inhabitants of the geographical region. These nouns look the same as the adjective in the nominative, but are declined like other nouns which makes a difference only in the mn-G and p-D case. Compare the forms in the table, where the adjective Schweizer, like the English adjective “Swiss”, refers to anything Swiss including but not restricted to army knives and cheese, whereas the noun refers only to Swiss citizens. Both words are capitalised, other than other adjectives derived from geographical names (e.g. bayerisch, deutsch, britisch).

Mandatory omission of ending

The mn-N forms of the possessive pronouns, of the indefinite article, and p-D forms of numerals take an ending only in a few contexts where no more word follows in the phrase. In the vast majority of possible contexts, they cannot have an ending.

Optional omission of ending

Some words can be used with or without their ending. With the exception of the first item below, the forms without an optional ending belong more to elevated language; in some contexts they sound stilted.

• all- can drop its ending when a demonstrative or possessive pronoun follows: alle meine Entchen or all meine Entchen; it must drop its ending when a definite article follows: all die Entchen.

• manch- can be used with or without ending; it must not have an ending immediately before an indefinite article and should have one immediately before a noun: manches dicke Buch, manch dickes Buch or manch ein dickes Buch.

• solch- behaves mostly like an indefinite numeral or an adjective, both regarding its position in the phrase and its ending. It can, however, also be placed immediately before an indefinite article and is then without ending. Moreover, the ending is optional immediately before an adjective: solch ein dickes Buch, ein solch dickes Buch, or ein solches dickes Buch.

• welch without ending, morphologically and syntactically behaving like solch without ending, serves for emphasis in an exclamation: welch ein dickes Buch! (what a thick book!), but welches dicke Buch? (which thick book?).

• In archaic language, n-NA forms of adjectives are sometimes without ending when there is no article with an ending before. This usage has now been obsolete for more than a century but occurs in proverbs, song lyrics, and idioms: gut Ding will Weile haben (a thing well done needs time), kein schöner Land ... als hier das unsre ([there is] no lovelier land ... than ours here), sich bei jmdm. lieb Kind machen (curry favour with s.o.).

The form dies instead of dieses should be regarded as a contraction rather than as a form without ending; subsequent words are treated as if it had an ending: compare manch dickes Buch and dies[es] dicke Buch.