Most German adjectives are perfectly obedient: you take the dictionary form, bolt on the ending the case and article demand, and you are done — gut → gute, klein → kleines, alt → alten. But a small, frequent group does something extra. When an ending is attached, the stem itself changes shape: hoch loses its -c-, and adjectives ending in -el or -er drop the -e- sitting before that final consonant. This page covers exactly which adjectives do this, what the changed stem looks like, and — crucially — why the change happens only in front of a noun and never after sein.
The change only happens attributively
Here is the governing principle, and it explains everything else on this page. The stem change is triggered by the ending, not by the adjective's meaning. So it appears only when the adjective is attributive (sitting before a noun and therefore inflected) and never when it is predicate (after sein, werden, bleiben, where the adjective stays bare). No ending, no change.
Watch hoch in both lives:
Der Berg ist hoch.
The mountain is high. (predicate — no ending, full -ch- stem)
Das ist ein hoher Berg.
That's a high mountain. (attributive — ending added, stem becomes hoh-)
The predicate form keeps the dictionary spelling hoch untouched. The attributive form must take an ending (-er here), and the moment it does, the -c- vanishes: hoher, not hocher. Same word, two shapes, decided entirely by whether an ending is present. If the predicate-versus-attributive distinction is not yet automatic for you, fix that first — it is the gate that decides whether the stem change applies at all.
hoch → hoh-
hoch (high, tall) is the only common adjective that loses a consonant. Before any ending, the -ch- simplifies to -h-, giving the inflected stem hoh-. Then the normal ending attaches to that stem.
| Form | Spelling | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Predicate | hoch | Full stem, no ending: Der Turm ist hoch. |
| Attributive (stem) | hoh- | The -c- drops before any ending. |
| hoher | ein hoher Turm |
| hohes | ein hohes Haus |
| hohe | die hohe Mauer |
| hohen | auf dem hohen Berg |
Sie wohnen in einem hohen Altbau mit Stuckdecken.
They live in a tall old building with stucco ceilings.
Von der hohen Brücke aus sieht man die ganze Stadt.
From the high bridge you can see the whole city.
Note that the comparative höher (higher) also drops the -c- — it is built on the same hoh- logic and is one of the irregular comparison forms. Do not let hocher slip out in either the positive or the comparative.
-el adjectives drop the -e-: dunkel → dunkl-
Adjectives ending in -el lose the -e- of that ending when an inflectional ending is added. The stem of dunkel (dark) is therefore dunkl- in every attributive form.
| Adjective | Inflected stem | Example |
|---|---|---|
| dunkel (dark) | dunkl- | ein dunkles Zimmer |
| edel (noble, fine) | edl- | ein edler Wein |
| sensibel (sensitive) | sensibl- | ein sensibles Kind |
| flexibel (flexible) | flexibl- | eine flexible Lösung |
| nobel (classy, generous) | nobl- | eine noble Geste |
Im dunklen Flur habe ich mir den Zeh gestoßen.
I stubbed my toe in the dark hallway.
Zu einem guten Essen gehört ein edler Wein.
A fine wine belongs with a good meal.
Sie ist ein sehr sensibles Kind und weint schnell.
She's a very sensitive child and cries easily.
Contrast each with its predicate form, where the full -el survives intact because there is no ending: Der Flur ist dunkel but der dunkle Flur; Der Wein ist edel but der edle Wein.
-er adjectives drop the -e-: teuer → teur-, sauer → saur-
The same -e- deletion applies to adjectives ending in -er. The most important is teuer (expensive), whose inflected stem is teur-. sauer (sour) behaves identically, giving saur-.
| Adjective | Inflected stem | Example |
|---|---|---|
| teuer (expensive) | teur- | ein teures Auto |
| sauer (sour) | saur- | saure Gurken |
| makaber (macabre) | makabr- | ein makabrer Scherz |
| integer (with integrity) | integr- | ein integrer Politiker |
Das ist mir ein bisschen zu teuer — hast du etwas Günstigeres?
That's a bit too expensive for me — do you have something cheaper? (predicate, full stem: teuer)
Ein teures Auto sagt noch nichts über den Fahrer aus.
An expensive car says nothing about the driver. (attributive: teur- + -es)
Zum Schnitzel gibt es bei uns immer saure Gurken.
With schnitzel we always have sour pickles. (attributive: saur- + -e)
The split between predicate teuer and attributive teures is the cleanest test of the rule. A native speaker would never write teueres: the -e- of the stem and the -e- of an ending cannot both survive, so German deletes the stem's.
Why German deletes the -e-
This is not an arbitrary list to memorize one item at a time — it is a single, predictable phonological rule. German dislikes a sequence of two weak, unstressed -e- syllables in a row (-eles, -eres). When the ending begins with a vowel, the stem's -e- would create exactly that stumbling double-schwa, so it is dropped to keep the word pronounceable and rhythmic. This is the same instinct that gives spoken German ich hab' for ich habe and 'nen for einen: unstressed -e- is the first thing to go when it gets crowded.
So you do not need a list of "stem-changing adjectives" at all. You need one rule with two clauses:
- Any adjective in -el or -er drops the -e- before an ending.
- hoch (and its comparative höher) drops the -c- before an ending.
Everything in the tables above is just that rule applied to common words.
A near neighbour: comparatives in -er
One source of confusion deserves a flag. The -e- deletion of teuer/dunkel is about the stem. It is not the same thing as the comparative ending -er (schnell → schneller). When you build the comparative of an -el/-er adjective, the stem still drops its -e- and then the comparative -er attaches: dunkel → dunkler (darker), teuer → teurer (more expensive), edel → edler (nobler). You will meet these again on the comparative page; here, just notice that the stem rule and the comparative ending stack cleanly.
Im Winter wird es hier draußen viel dunkler als in der Stadt.
In winter it gets much darker out here than in the city.
Common Mistakes
❌ ein hoches Haus
Incorrect — hoch loses its -c- before an ending.
✅ ein hohes Haus
a tall house
The most recognizable of these errors. Learners apply the ending to the predicate form hoch without simplifying the stem. The inflected stem is hoh-, so it is hohes, hoher, hohe, hohen — never hoch- with an ending.
❌ ein dunkeles Zimmer
Incorrect — the inner -e- of dunkel is deleted before the ending.
✅ ein dunkles Zimmer
a dark room
English speakers preserve the whole stem out of caution. German cannot tolerate the double-schwa -eles, so it deletes the stem's -e-: dunkl- + -es = dunkles.
❌ ein teueres Auto
Incorrect — teuer drops its -e- when inflected.
✅ ein teures Auto
an expensive car
The same deletion, on an -er adjective. The stem is teur-, giving teures, teurer, teure, teuren. teueres with both *-e-*s intact is a guaranteed giveaway of a non-native.
❌ Der Wein ist edler.
Incorrect (for 'the wine is fine') — the predicate form must keep its full stem: edel.
✅ Der Wein ist edel.
The wine is fine. (predicate — no ending, no deletion)
Over-applying the rule in the wrong direction. edler is fine attributively (ein edler Wein) or as a comparative (edler = nobler), but a plain predicate adjective takes no ending and keeps its full stem edel. The deletion is triggered by an ending; a bare predicate has none.
❌ Der Berg ist hoh.
Incorrect — the predicate form is hoch; hoh- exists only with an ending.
✅ Der Berg ist hoch.
The mountain is high.
The mirror error to ein hoches Haus: stripping the -c- in the predicate, where there is no ending to trigger it. hoh- is a bound stem; it never appears without an ending attached. With no ending, the word is simply hoch.
Key Takeaways
- The stem change is triggered by the ending, so it appears only on attributive adjectives, never on bare predicate adjectives after sein/werden/bleiben.
- hoch → hoh-: the -c- drops before any ending (ein hohes Haus); the comparative höher follows the same logic.
- -el and -er adjectives drop the inner -e- before an ending: dunkel → dunkl-, edel → edl-, teuer → teur-, sauer → saur-.
- This is one predictable phonological rule, not a list — German deletes the unstressed -e- to avoid an awkward double-schwa.
- The endings themselves are completely normal; only the spelling of the stem shifts. Choose the ending exactly as you would for any adjective.
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Weak Adjective Declension (after der-words)A2 — The weak endings used when a definite article or der-word already shows the case: only -e or -en, with -e in just five cells.
- Mixed Adjective Declension (after ein-words)B1 — The hybrid pattern after ein-words: weak endings where the ein-word inflects, but strong endings in the three gaps where ein shows nothing.
- The ComparativeA2 — How German builds the comparative by adding -er to the adjective itself — never 'more' — with obligatory umlaut on a predictable set and als for 'than'.
- Adjective Endings: Worked Examples and Practice LogicB1 — A workshop of fully worked adjective-ending derivations across every gender, case, and article type — narrating the reasoning step by step so you build procedure, not just answers.