The Accusative Case

The Accusative Case

The accusative case may be used in German for any one of three reasons:

The sentence has a direct object - a noun or pronoun that receives action from the verb. (The vers sein never takes a direct object)
The noun or pronoun follows one of these prepositions: durch, für, gegen, ohne, um (or bis and entlang) These prepositions require the use of the accusative case always.
The noun or pronoun follows one of these prepositons AND motion toward a new location is being shown: in, an, auf, vor, hinter, über, unter, neben, zwischen. These prepositons also may require the use of the Dative Case when only location is being shown. More on that later.

The Direct Object

For an excellent presentation on the accusative case and the direct object go to the following web site: http://nosferatu.cas.usf.edu/german/grammatik/accusative/accusative.html

Read the information on the Nominative Case and then continue to read the explanaiton of the Accusative Case.

In brief, a direct object is a noun or pronoun that is receiving action, or being acted upon by the subject of the sentence. There must be an active verb (not sein) in the sentence.

Der Hund beisst den Mann Wir bringen den Käse.
Ich habe einen Bruder. Anina liest ein Buch.

Erik trinkt einen Kaffee. Soren küsst die Prinzessin.

In the Accusative Case the following changes occur in the DEFINITE ARTICLES:

	masc.	fem.	neut.	pl.
Nomminative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	DEN	die	das	die

The following changes occur in the EIN WORDS:

	masc.	fem.	neut.	pl.
Nominative	kein	keine	kein	keine
Accusative	KEINEN	keine	kein	keine

These changes occur with all of the EIN WORDS which are:

Deutsch	Englisch
ein	a, an
kein	not a, no
mein	my
dein	your (sing. familiar)
sein	his, its
ihr	her
unser	our
euer	your (pl. familiar)
Ihr	Your (formal, sing & pl)
ihr	their

The following changes occur in the DIESER WORDS:

	masc.	fem.	neut.	pl.
Nominative	dieser	diese	dieses	diese
Accusative	DIESEN	diese	dieses	diese

These changes in all of the DIESER WORDS which are:

Deutsch	Englisch
dieser	this, these
jeder	each, every
mancher	some
solcher	such
welcher	which

The following changes occur in PRONOUNS in the accusative case:

Nominative	Accusative
ich (I)	mich (me)
du (you, sing. familiar)	dich (you, sing. familiar)
er (he - replaces der )	ihn (him - replaces den)
sie (she - replaces die)	sie (she - replaces die)
es (it-replaces das)	es (it - replaces das)
wir (we)	uns (us)
ihr (you - pl. familiar)	euer (you - pl. famiiar)
Sie (you - formal)	Sie (you - formal)
sie (they - replaces die pl.)	sie (them - replaces die pl.)

The following changes occur in ADJECTIVE ENDINGS FOLLOWING DEFINITE ARTICLES AND DIESER WORDS in the Accusative Case:

	masc.	fem.	neut.	pl.
Nominative	der ---E Mann	die ---E Frau	das ---E Mädchen	die ---EN Kinder
Accusative	DEN ---EN Mann	die ---E Frau	das ---E Mädchen	die ---EN Kinder