German Language Stack Exchange is a bilingual question and answer site for speakers of all levels who want to share and increase their knowledge of the German language. It's 100% free, no registration required.
Sign up to join this community
I am confused about adjective endings and placement.
Example:
(1) Mein alter Pullover ist sehr hässlich.
(2) Mein hässlicher Pullover ist sehr alt.
(3) Mein Pullover ist sehr alt und hässlich.
My question is this: In all three cases the pullover is both old and ugly, yet why is it that depending on where the adjectives are they either take the -er ending (since it is der Pullover) or not?
In other words, why is it not:
Mein alter Pullover ist sehr hässlicher.
The adjectives alt and hässlich in your last sentence, (3), are predicative. So is the second adjective in (1) and (2). Predicative are not declined; they occur after the verb sein there. In these three sentences you wrote the declension (and the absence thereof) correctly.
Regarding the question pertaining the last sentence: it's wrong because the adjective hässlich appears there qualifying your noun, Pullover, via a verbal construction; it doesn't need an ending. You don't need to decline those. Decline those adjectives directly qualifying the noun (attributive adjectives), as you correctly did with alter.
