Lithuanian adjectives must always match the nouns they describe.

This rule is known as adjective agreement.

It’s a core part of Lithuanian grammar that you’ll use in almost every sentence.

Unlike English, you can’t use the exact same word to describe a man, a woman, or a group of things.

The ending of the adjective must physically change to reflect the noun.

I’ll break down exactly how this works so you can start building correct sentences immediately.

What is adjective agreement?

Adjectives are describing words like “good”, “big”, or “red”.

In Lithuanian, these words act like grammatical mirrors for nouns.

Whatever grammatical properties the noun has, the adjective must copy them.

This means the adjective must match the noun in three specific ways.

It must match the gender (masculine or feminine).

It must match the number (singular or plural).

It must also match the case (how the word functions in the sentence).

Gender agreement

Every noun in Lithuanian is either masculine or feminine.

Your adjective must change its ending to match this gender.

Let’s look at the word for “good”, which is geras in its base masculine dictionary form.

If you’re describing a masculine noun like vyras (man), the adjective stays masculine.

If you’re describing a feminine noun like moteris (woman), the adjective must become feminine.

The feminine form of geras is gera.

Most masculine adjectives end in -as, -is, or -us.

Most feminine adjectives end in -a or -i.

Number agreement

You must also change the adjective if you’re talking about more than one thing.

This is called number agreement.

Singular nouns require singular adjectives.

Plural nouns require plural adjectives.

Let’s make our previous examples plural to see this in action.

The plural form of “good” for masculine nouns is geri.

The plural form of “good” for feminine nouns is geros.

Notice how both the adjective and the noun change their endings together.

Case agreement

Lithuanian uses seven grammatical cases to show what a word does in a sentence.

When a noun changes its case, the adjective attached to it must also change its case.

If the noun is the direct object, it takes the accusative case.

This means your adjective must also take the accusative case.

Notice the nasal vowels (ą, į) at the end of the words to mark the accusative case.

In spoken language and regional dialects like Samogitian, you might occasionally hear slightly shortened endings.

However, in standard Lithuanian, you must always pronounce these full case endings clearly.

Summary of basic endings

Here’s a quick summary table using the adjective geras (good) in the nominative (subject) case.

Use this to help memorize the basic gender and number patterns.