The Accusative Case In German: A Beginner's Guide

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Some German learners study the language by memorising phrases according to a situation. That may work but there’s a downside – you may not be able to identify the accusative case in German or maybe point out why some articles have changed in the sentence.

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When we formulate a simple sentence, it comprises only three parts – the subject, the verb and the object.

The subject is the nominative while the object is the accusative case.

Sounds simple, right? Take this sentence as an example – Ich liebe dich. The pronoun ”dich” is in the accusative case here.

But what about this sentence, ”Den Hund suche ich”? Which one is the nominative and which is the accusative object?

Now that seems a bit complicated but you just need to go back to your declension rules, understand the context of the sentence and learn the four cases of the German language so you can identify which is the subject and the direct object in the sentence.

So what is exactly the accusative case in the German language?

The German language has four cases namely: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Maybe in your mother language, it is different, even in English.

Accusative or akkusativ in German makes the direct object of the sentence or the receiver of the action of the verb.

With the example sentence above, ”Den Hund suche ich”, you might have noticed that ”den Hund” is the direct object or the accusative case although it is at the beginning of the sentence.

Yes, that’s still grammatically correct as long as the verb is in the second place.

”Den Hund (accusative, receiver of the action and the direct object) suche (verb) ich (nominative, the doer of the action and the subject)

English translation: I am looking for the dog.

How do you identify the accusative case?

– You can identify the direct object if it answers the question ”what”

For example:

What am I looking for? In German, was suche ich? The answer to the question ”what or was” is in the accusative case already.

Ich suche den Hund. Den Hund suche ich. I am looking for the dog.

Ich is the doer.

Hund is the receiver.

Who is looking for the dog? I or ich.

What am I looking for? The dog or den Hund.

To differentiate, nominative answers the question ”who” for a person and ”what” for things.

Since nominative also answers the question ”what” it might confuse you even more, so you can imagine replacing the ”what” with ”who”.

For example:

The car has four wheels. Der Wagen hat vier Räder.

What (who) has four wheels? (I know it sounds really weird, but if you’re confused, you can use that technique.) The answer to this question is the subject or the nominative.

The car has what? The answer to the ”what” question here serves as the direct object or the accusative case.

Remember: The verb ”haben” or ”have” always precedes a direct object.

– You can identify the direct object if it answers the question ”whom”

Using and identifying whom (wen) and who (wer) may be confusing for some but you only have to remember ”who” is used for nominative or subject while ”whom” is used for accusative or the direct object of the sentence.

For example:

I greet my friend. Ich grüße meinen Freund.

Whom am I greeting? My friend.

Wen grüße ich? Ich grüße meinen Freund (it answers the question whom or ”wen”)

– You can also identify the accusative case with the use of prepositions

Personally, I find this pointer the easiest in identifying the accusative case in the sentence as long as you know all the prepositions that take the accusative case.

Here are the prepositions that follow nouns in the accusative case:

Accusative prepositions in German	Meaning in English	Examples
für	for	Ich gebe Geld für meinen Hund aus. I’m spending money on my dog.
gegen	against	Sie kämpft gegen ihre Chefin. She’s fighting against her lady boss.
bis	until	Ich warte bis die Ankunft meiner Schwester. I wait until the arrival of my sister.
ohne	without	Er geht nicht ohne seinen Vater. He’s not going without his father.
um	around	Die Kinder tanzen um den Baum. The children are dancing around the tree.
durch	through	Der Fluss fließt durch die Stadt. The river flows through the town.

If you see these prepositions, you shouldn’t wonder anymore if the nouns after that are all in the accusative case. Knowing these will help you in answering and passing the German language certification exam, especially in the Sprachbausteine part.

– You can identify the accusative case through articles

In this guideline, we can use the sentence from above – ”Den Hund suche ich”.

”Den Hund” will never be the nominative case because there’s no article such as ”den” in the nominative case. You will only find the article ”den” in the accusative which is the accusative declension for the masculine article ”der” and in the dative case for plural.

Look at the table below and see the declension in the accusative case with adjectives:

	Definite Article (the)	Indefinite Article [an/a (ein), no (kein), and possessive pronouns(mein, dein, sein )]	No article
masculine	den alten Mann	einen alten Mann	alten Mann
feminine	die hübsche Frau	eine hübsche Frau	hübsche Frau
neuter	das nette Mädchen	ein nettes Mädchen	nettes Mädchen
plural	die reichen Nachbarn	reiche Nachbarn	reiche Nachbarn

Now look at the difference between nominative and accusative using definite articles (the) in the tables below:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die

Just by looking at the table above, you can already tell that only the masculine article has changed its declension, the rest remain the same.

– You can also identify the accusative case through verbs that need a direct object

You might have learned that there are fixed dative verbs in German but there are also German verbs that always take a direct object. These verbs are called transitive verbs and they can’t ”stand alone”, that means, if you use that certain verb without an object, the idea or thought is incomplete.

For example:

Ich trage. I carry. In this context, you don’t know what the person is carrying. It sounds something is missing, right?

However, with this sentence that follows, you can still understand it since the thought is complete:

Ich schlafe. I’m sleeping. The verb ”sleep” doesn’t require a direct object but you can, of course, use a preposition which also determines the case of the noun that follows the preposition.

For example: Ich schlafe ohne mein Kissen. Ich sleep without my pillow.

Here are some verbs that require a direct object, thus making them accusative verbs:

Accusative Verbs	English Translation	Examples
finden	– to find	Ich finde den Weg. I find the way.
besuchen	– to visit	Sie besucht ihren Freund. She’s visiting her boyfriend.
besitzen	– to own	Meine Mutter besitzt ein Haus. My mother owns a house.
verkaufen	– to sell	Die Nachbarin verkauft ihren Wagen. The neighbour is selling her car.
kennen	– to know (person)	Kennst du die Frau? Do you know the woman?
bestellen	– to order	Ich bestelle einen Kaffee. I’m ordering a coffee.
mögen	– to like	Mein Hund mag meine Katze nicht. My dog doesn’t like my cat.
nehmen	– to take	Nehmen Sie ein Stück Kuchen bitte. Please take a piece of cake.
treffen	– to meet	Sein Bruder trifft gerne neue Leute. His brother likes to meet new people.
verlieren	– to lose	Mein Vater verliert seinen Koffer. My father loses his suitcase.

You don’t have to memorise all accusative verbs in German since the majority of the verbs are accusative. What you should pay attention to is knowing all the dative verbs and genitive verbs so you can already tell that some remaining verbs are accusative.

How can you master using and identifying the accusative case in German?

Always practice and use different cases of German in constructing sentences.
Like I said above, pay attention more to memorising all dative and genitive verbs, then you can safely assume the rest of the verbs are accusative.
Memorise all prepositions and their uses. Do not forget to use them while practising writing in German.
Read German articles and ”dissect” the sentences – understanding and identifying the four cases of the German language.
Study, read and practice every day.

Closing Words: The Accusative Case In German

Understanding and applying the accusative case in German are two different things but you can’t use the accusative case properly in a sentence if you didn’t understand its function in the first place.

Cases in German are like the pillar of German grammar. You can’t form a sentence if you’re not yet confident in your knowledge. But that shouldn’t hinder you in practising because from mistakes, we can also learn.

If something is still unclear to you, do not hesitate to let me know. Comment your thoughts below or contact me via email.

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