"Sie hat rote Hosen."

Translation: She has red pants.

[jaye16]

My trick seems to be working but don't take my word for it. I'm sure there's a pit fall in there somewhere. Here's what I do:

It says: "She has red pants." Ok, now there is no article (direct or otherwise).
What article would it have had? Well it's plural so no brainer. "Die" Now I take that "e" from "die" and put it on "rot" and voila.

Please give some feed back. These adjectives are the bane of my life here on Duo but I refuse to let them win.

[zengator]

See http://www.duolingo.com/comment/556140, where jess1camar1e posted:

3 rules for being able to add (or recognize) the correct ending when an adjective precedes the noun.

1 - With "the" get an -e: (der, die, das) der alte Mann, die schöne Frau, das kleine Kind
2 - Changin' gets -en: (plural and case changes) den alten Mann (accusative), der schönen Frau (dative), die kleinen Kinder (plural)
3 - No 'the'? Adjective takes over: (no 'der' word or just an 'ein') Kaltes Wetter gefällt mir nicht (das Wetter). Ein guter Mann ist schwer zu finden (der Mann).

Changin' means the "the [der/die/das/die]" word differs -- has changed -- from its Nominative singular form.

[jaye16]

Yes, I just got this but haven't had time to look at it. Now, I've completed the lesson I'll get to it. It looks great. Staight forward and easy to remember. Thanks for posting it.

[damo076]

Thanks for this tip. Seems to quite logical and (hopefully) useful. Worthy of a lingot

[aydn_osm]

Forget everthing and just look tables at this link: https://www.thoughtco.com/the-four-german-noun-cases-4064290

Only one extra rule you may not find in the link is the addtion of "-n" to the end of the plural noun (if it doesnot have already) in dat case.
Ex: I help my children: ich hilfe meinen kinderN.

Good luck!

[Fatfish321]

I'm having a hard time understanding when to use "Rot, rote, roten", seems to change at random. Very frustrating

[V2Blast]

See the inflection rules here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_adjectives

[jackthebiotic]

Pants is trousers here, right?

[zengator]

Ja. Hosen are pants, trousers, britches/breeches, slacks, drawers. In Am. English pants are outerwear and panties are underwear, usually for females.

I was surprised by this: knickers are the outerwear from waist to knees in Am. English only; everywhere else, knickers are underwear.

Technically, britches is a variant spelling of breeches, and it seems that what Americans call knickers are actually breeches. Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeches.

See also: http://www.dict.cc/?s=hosen

[mirage014]

Is it "rote" in this sentence because it's referring to something that's plural (Hosen)?

[Hohenems]

Not just that. You need to check singular/plural, if singular then what gender, what case, and what it is preceded by (article or no article, and if there is an article, what kind of article).
In this case, plural, accusative case, no article = strong declension:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_declension#Strong_inflection.5B6.5D.5B7.5D

If that made matters worse, let me know and I'll try to explain it better!

[GauthierMcL]

I thought she said "rote Rosen" weil ich Dumkopf bin.

[Jude484365]

So did I. I listened a couple of times and still heard 'Rosen'.

[bsf44]

How do you say: "hipster" in German?

[InPxgX6K]

Berliner

[LindaYoung15]

The use of pants is American. British people would tend to use the word trousers as pants in the UK means underwear.

[sjjenkins2007]

How do we know it is a she for sie

[jaye16]

"Sie" can mean: "she" so singular verb (hat), or "they" so plural verb (haben) or "you (formal/polite) again plural verb (haben). Here you have singular "hat" so it can only be "she." Always, look at the verb.

[Jacob53715]

Unless she owns more than one pair of red pants, shouldn't it be "Sie hat eine rote Hose."?

[Kitzarilla]

Shouldn't it be "roten Hosen"?! (because - hosen is in plural and it's the direct object)

[Brian760310]

Maybe it's just me, but I played it back a few times and I could swear he is saying "rosen", not "hosen"