German Accusative Case

As you know , in German , there are four cases , three are used often . The first , Nominative Case , you learned previously . It covers the subject , and the predicate noun (in “He is (noun).”, (noun) is the predicate noun). The second , the German Accusative Case , you will learn now . It covers the direct object and the object of several prepositions . The third , the Dative Case will be taught later on . It covers the indirect object and the object of many other prepositions .

Note: The Accusative Case and Dative Case are identical in English ; that’s where the extra case comes from .

Articles :

In the articles , the memory hook for accusative case is “Der goes to den (pronounced “dain”) and the rest stay the same” . The masculine indefinite article goes to einen , and everything else stays the same there . Therefore above , der Hamburger goes to den Hamburger and ein Hamburger goes to einen Hamburger when the hamburger is the direct object , such as in “Er hat einen Hamburger.” (“He has a hamburger.”)

If you are getting confused , it’s fine . This topic ( German Accusative Case ) is one of the hardest for English speakers to grasp . Here are some solutions :

To find out the case of something , first find the verb . The verb rules the sentence . Everything revolves around it . Next you find the subject of the sentence . The subject is the thing/person that is doing the verb . The subject is always in the Nominative Case , so it takes on the der , die , das , die , or ein , eine , ein .

Now you look back at the verb . If it is a being verb (am, are, is, etc.) , the next noun after the verb is the predicate noun . An easy way to figure this out is to write an equation . If the verb can be replaced with an equals sign (=) , then the following noun is a predicate noun . If it can’t be replaced by an equals sign , refer to the next paragraph . The predicate noun is also always in the Nominative Case , so the same rules apply to it .

• 🔊 Listen Ich bin ein Junge .
• 🔊 Listen Sie ist eine Frau .

If the verb of the sentence is an action verb (playing, throwing, making, eating) , find what the subject is doing the verb to . For example , if the verb is “makes” (macht) , you look for what is being made . That is the direct object . The direct object is always in the Accusative Case , so it takes on the den, die, das, die, or einen, eine, ein .

• 🔊 Listen Sie haben den Cheeseburger .
• 🔊 Listen Habt ihr einen Salat ?

The indefinite articles , when you just look at their endings, go -, e, -, e for nominative case, and en, e, -, e for accusative . This can be memorized as “Blankie, Blankie, Any Blankie” .

Remember , between nominative and accusative , the only third-person change is in the masculine form .