The 50 most common German adjectives (25 opposite pairs)

Right now: take each adjective together with its opposite

ShortcutDon’t memorise adjectives one by one — learn them together with their opposite: pick up groß and klein comes for free. After the verb the adjective takes no ending; before a noun it does.

A word learnt with its opposite sticks better: one pops into your head and the other follows. And when you describe something you already talk in contrasts — the flat is big but the kitchen is small, the hotel is expensive but clean.

This page holds the 50 most common adjectives as 25 pairs of opposites, in three groups: everyday basics, people and character, things and states. One word sits in two pairs at once — alt — and the reason is below.

The order of the page: first the table of 25 pairs, then three rules (after the verb, before a noun, comparing), then the part of the list nobody mentions, and four traps. The study plan comes last.

The table: 25 pairs, three groups

One pair per row, with its English meaning and an example sentence. Most sentences use both ends of the pair together — so you hear the two words side by side while you memorise.

Group 1 · Everyday basics. Ten pairs you will meet in every conversation.

Group 2 · People and character. Seven pairs for describing someone.

Group 3 · Things and states. Eight pairs for describing an object or a situation.

You already do this in English: adjectives after the verb take no ending

English adjectives never change: “the house is big”, “a big house”. German shares half of that with you. When the adjective stands after the verb, it stays bare, just like in English. Once it moves in front of a noun, it takes an ending — and that is the only part English doesn’t have.

There is a third place where there is no ending either: when the adjective describes the verb. English does the same with “he runs fast”: Der Zug fährt schnell. · Sprich bitte langsam.

viel and wenig usually take no ending before something uncountable: viel Zeit · wenig Geld. Before a countable plural they do: viele Leute · wenige Tage.

Comparing: the -er ending, als and wie

English does this in two ways: “bigger” for short words, “more expensive” for long ones. German only has the first way: an ending stuck onto the adjective, -er. What you compare with comes after als, which is “than”. For equality there is no ending: so + adjective + wie = “as … as”.

There are four irregular ones, and you memorise them. Two are on this list, two come up so often when you compare that they belong here too:

The part nobody tells you: the two ends of a pair are not equal

The list matches pairs neatly, but in real language some ends open up into more than one word. Four of these fifty adjectives do:

• alt — “old” for things, “old” for people. The opposite of a thing is neu, the opposite of a person is jung.
• schwer — both “heavy” and “hard”. The opposite of heavy is only leicht. The opposite of hard is einfach, but leicht also means “easy”: Die Prüfung war leicht.
• laut — “loud” for a person, opposite ruhig. If you mean the sound itself, the opposite is leise: Sprich bitte leise, das Baby schläft.
• billig — “cheap”, but sometimes it is heard as “cheap and nasty”. To praise a price, günstig is safer: Das Hotel ist günstig.

In short: leicht opens both doors (light and easy), einfach only one (easy, simple). If you are unsure, use einfach as the opposite of hard and leicht as the opposite of heavy — neither is ever wrong.

Four traps

Even students who know the adjectives make these four mistakes all the time. Two are grammar, two are meaning.

How to study: one pair a day

One pair a day is a good pace: the list is done in 25 days. To finish in two weeks, take two pairs a day. Four steps per pair — all four with the same pair, so you use the three rules once every day:

Study it side by side with the verb list: the 50 most common verbs build the sentence, these 50 adjectives fill it in. Together they make the skeleton of everyday conversation.