This page covers five quantifying determiners that mostly travel in the plural: alle (all), beide (both), sämtliche (all the / the entire set of), manche (some / several), and solche (such). All five are der-words — they take the same endings as der/die/das — and they normally trigger weak adjective endings, just as the definite article does. The complications are small but real: alle and beide sometimes leave the following adjective freer than the rule predicts, and the special uninflected form all appears before another determiner. Get those two wrinkles and the rest is mechanical.
They are der-words
Because these are der-words, their endings mirror the definite article. Here is the plural paradigm (where most of them live) plus the singular for the ones that have it:
| alle (pl.) | beide (pl.) | manche (sg. masc.) | solche (sg. fem.) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | alle | beide | mancher | solche |
| Accusative | alle | beide | manchen | solche |
| Dative | allen | beiden | manchem | solcher |
| Genitive | aller | beider | manches | solcher |
The endings (-e, -en, -er, -em, -es) are exactly the article's endings. So alle Leute mirrors die Leute, allen Leuten mirrors den Leuten, mancher Mann mirrors der Mann.
Alle Gäste sind schon da.
All the guests are already here.
Ich habe mit allen Kollegen gesprochen.
I've spoken with all my colleagues.
In allen Kollegen, the dative plural -en on alle matches den, and the noun takes its dative-plural -n too.
alle — "all" (plural)
alle means "all" and is overwhelmingly plural. A following adjective takes the weak ending (-en in the plural):
Alle guten Freunde sind heute gekommen.
All my good friends came today.
Sie hat alle wichtigen Dokumente mitgebracht.
She brought all the important documents.
There is a debated wrinkle here: after alle, many speakers also accept the strong -e on the adjective in the nominative/accusative plural — alle guten Freunde is standard, but alle gute turns up too. The weak form (alle guten) is the safe, prescriptively correct choice; treat alle gute as a colloquial variant you'll hear but needn't produce.
all — uninflected, before another determiner
Here is the single most important structural fact on this page. When all is followed by another determiner — a definite article, a possessive, a dies- word — it stays uninflected: just bare all. The determiner that follows carries the case.
All das Geld ist weg.
All the money is gone.
All meine Freunde wohnen jetzt im Ausland.
All my friends now live abroad.
Er hat all diese Bücher gelesen.
He's read all these books.
But the moment all stands directly before the noun with no other determiner, it inflects to alle:
Alle Leute warten draußen.
All the people are waiting outside.
So the contrast is: alle Leute (no following determiner → inflect) vs. all die Leute (following article → bare all). German lets all go uninflected precisely because die / meine / diese is already showing the case — two case-markers would be redundant.
beide — "both"
beide means "both" and refers to a known pair. It takes der-word endings and a weak adjective:
Beide Kinder schlafen schon.
Both children are already asleep.
Ich kenne beide kleinen Geschwister.
I know both of the little siblings.
A key difference from English: German beide does not need "of the." English says "both of the children"; German just says beide Kinder. Reaching for a von-phrase (beide von den Kindern) is an Anglicism — drop it.
Like all, beide can also follow another determiner, and then it inflects with weak endings: die beiden Kinder, meine beiden Brüder ("my two / both brothers").
Meine beiden Brüder studieren in Berlin.
Both my brothers study in Berlin.
sämtliche — "all the / the entire set" (formal)
sämtliche (formal) is a heavier, more bureaucratic synonym for alle, stressing completeness — "each and every one of." It is a der-word, so the following adjective takes the weak plural -en, just as after alle: sämtliche alten Akten.
Sämtliche Mitarbeiter wurden informiert.
All staff members were notified. (formal)
Wir haben sämtliche alten Akten vernichtet.
We destroyed all the old files. (formal)
You'll meet sämtliche in official letters, legal texts, and notices; in casual speech, alle does the same job more naturally.
manche — "some / several / many a"
manche means "some" or "several" in the plural, and "many a / the occasional" in the (less common) singular. It implies an unspecified but non-trivial number — more pointed than the vague "some."
Manche Leute mögen keinen Kaffee.
Some people don't like coffee.
Manche guten Ideen kommen erst nachts.
Some good ideas only come at night.
In the singular, mancher means "many a" and feels somewhat literary: mancher gute Vorsatz ("many a good intention").
solche — "such"
solche means "such" — "that kind of." Plural solche, singular solcher/solche/solches. It points to a type or quality.
Solche Fehler darf man nicht machen.
One mustn't make such mistakes.
Mit solchen Problemen kenne ich mich aus.
I'm familiar with such problems.
Note the common singular pattern solch ein / so ein ("such a"), where solch goes uninflected before ein: solch ein schöner Tag or, more colloquially, so ein schöner Tag ("such a beautiful day").
Common Mistakes
❌ Alle gut Freunde sind gekommen.
Incorrect — the adjective after alle must take an ending.
✅ Alle guten Freunde sind gekommen.
All my good friends came.
German adjectives are never bare before a noun. After alle, the plural adjective takes the weak -en: guten.
❌ Alle das Geld ist weg.
Incorrect — before another determiner, all stays uninflected.
✅ All das Geld ist weg.
All the money is gone.
When a determiner (das) follows, all does not inflect. Reserve alle for when all stands directly before the noun.
❌ Ich kenne beide von den Kindern.
Incorrect — beide takes no 'of the' phrase.
✅ Ich kenne beide Kinder.
I know both children.
English "both of the" maps to a bare German beide + noun. The von-phrase is an Anglicism.
❌ Manche Leute mag keinen Kaffee.
Incorrect — manche is plural here and needs a plural verb.
✅ Manche Leute mögen keinen Kaffee.
Some people don't like coffee.
manche Leute is plural, so the verb is plural mögen, not singular mag.
❌ Solche ein Tag vergisst man nicht.
Incorrect — solch goes uninflected before ein.
✅ Solch ein Tag vergisst man nicht.
One doesn't forget such a day.
Before ein, solch stays bare: solch ein Tag (or colloquially so ein Tag), not inflected solche ein.
Key Takeaways
- alle, beide, sämtliche, manche, solche are der-words taking der/die/das endings and (standardly) weak adjective endings.
- all stays uninflected before another determiner (all das Geld, all meine Freunde) but inflects to alle when it stands alone before the noun (alle Leute).
- beide needs no "of the" — beide Kinder, not beide von den Kindern.
- sämtliche (formal) ≈ alle with extra emphasis on completeness; manche = "some/several"; solche = "such" (with bare solch ein before ein).
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Start learning German→Related Topics
- Determiners: der-words and ein-wordsA2 — The two determiner families that drive German adjective endings — der-words decline like the definite article, ein-words like ein, and each triggers its own adjective pattern.
- 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.
- jeder, mancher, and Distributive DeterminersB1 — jeder ('each/every') is strictly singular and pairs with the accusative-of-time pattern (jeden Tag); einige, mehrere, viele, wenige cover 'some' and 'several' in the plural.