294

The Loom of Language

and in unless the verb denotes motion With the neuter, feminine and
masculine nouns das Haus (house), die Frau (woman), der Hut (hat), we
therefore write

SINGULAR

ohne das Haus mit dem Haus
ohne mein Haus mit meinem Haus

PLURAL

ohne die Hauser mit den Hausern
ohne meine Hauser in meinen Hausern

fur die Frau
fur meine Frau

durch den Hut
durch meinen Hut

von der Frau
von meiner Frau

in dem Hut
in meinem Hut

fur die Frauen *
fur unsere Frauen

durch die Hute
durch meine Hute

von den Frauen
von unseren Frauen

in den Huten
von meinen Huten

The rules for choice of endings appropriate to ordinary adjectives fall
under four headings

(i) If predicative, an adjective has the dictionary form without addition
of any ending It behaves as all English adjectives behave We do not
have to bother about the number, gender or case of the noun We use
the same word dumm to say

Das ist dumm = this is stupid Sie ist dumm = she is stupid
Er ist dumm = he is stupid Wir sind dumm = we are stupid

(u) If the adjective comes after a demonstrative or the definite article it
behaves like nouns of the weak class represented by der Knabe (p 290)
We then have to choose between the two endings -E and -EN in accor-
dance witn the number, gender, and case of the noun The ending -E is
the form which always goes with a singular subject It is also the accusa-
tive case-form for singular nouns of the feminine and neuter classes
Otherwise we have to use the ending -EN The following table shows the
relation of the definite article to an accompanying (weak) adjective.

MASCULINE SINGULAR
NEUTER SINGULAR
FEMININE SINGULAR
PLURAL

Nomin
der blindE
d^s blindE
die bhndLE
die blincLEAr

Accus
den blmdEN

Gen.
des blinds
de blind
r [EN

Dat
dem b]mdEN
den bhndEN