CARROTTA
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🎯 Compendium
Grammar
DE
Deutsch — Accusative case
The accusative marks the direct object — the thing directly affected by the verb. In German only the masculine article visibly changes: Ich sehe den Mann. Feminine, neuter and plural articles keep their nominative form.
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How it works
✓ Rule
Ask wen? (whom?) or was? (what?) after the verb to find the accusative object. For masculine nouns the article endings add -n: der → den, ein → einen, kein → keinen. Example: Ich kaufe einen Apfel; Ich habe keinen Hund.
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Examples
| Nominative | Accusative | Meaning / gender |
|---|---|---|
| der Mann | den Mann | the man (masculine) |
| ein Tisch | einen Tisch | a table (masculine) |
| kein Hund | keinen Hund | no dog (masculine) |
| die Frau | die Frau | the woman (feminine — unchanged) |
| das Kind | das Kind | the child (neuter — unchanged) |
| ich | mich | I → me |
| du | dich | you → you |
| er | ihn | he → him |
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Good to know
⚠ Note
A frequent beginner mistake is forgetting that only masculine changes. Feminine die and neuter das look identical in nominative and accusative — so Ich sehe die Frau and Ich sehe das Kind stay the same. Watch the personal pronoun er, which becomes ihn, not *ihm (that is dative).