[stevoski]

There are three genders in German. And four cases. Multiply them together, throw in plurals, add in uses of the indefinite article and the definitive article, and, well, it is far too much for a single sentence to explain.

But in principle I agree with you. We need a bit of book learning to go with the "just start speaking" approach.

[SilasX]

Hence the 3-dimensional chart for determining adjective ending -- it depends on gender, case, and the word preceding it (i.e., definite article, indefinite, or nothing). Although I found a chart on this page that "reduces" it to a four-branch flow chart:

http://www.nthuleen.com/teach/grammar/adjektivendungenexpl.h...