A1 Lesson 26: Accusative case

Hello everyone and welcome to our video series on learn German for beginners. In
Lesson 19 we learned about the nominative case. In this lesson, we'll be doing the
accusative case.

Lektion 26

Artikel im Akkusativ

So, let's see what all we are going to do in this chapter. Firstly, we will be learning,
what is accusative, what are the questions ‘wen’ und ‘was’ and then we'll be learning
the definite, indefinite and negative articles in Akkusativ.

Akkusativ
Let's take two sentences to understand this
Sabine hat einen Bruder.
Wir haben ein Kind.

We have already learned that every sentence has a subject. In this case Sabina and
Wir. And subject is always in Nominativ. In some sentences there is also an object,
like in these two.
In the first sentence, the object is einen Bruder and in the second sentence ein Kind.
This object is known as the Akkusativ object or you can say this object is in Akkusativ.

So, the Objekt in Akkusativ can either be a person - “Person” or thing - “Sache” and
these can either be in singular or in plural. Now, let's take an example for each one
of these.
PERSON
Wen liebt Petra?
Petra liebt ihren Mann.

The object here ihren Mann which is in Akkusativ so the question is Wen liebt Petra?
If the question is ‘Wen’, then the answer will be in Akkusativ and the object will be a
person. Or in simple conclusion - Wen ist the accusative Form of the Question word
WER - used for persons and objects. Coming to the next one.

SACHE
Was hast du?
Ich habe ein Auto.
In this case, when the Akkusativ objekt is a thing, the question will be ‘Was’. Just like
in the nominative case, when there is a thing, the question is WAS. Here, the form of
WAS will not change, even if it is Akkusativ.

Let’s move on.

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Now we move on to the unbestimmte Artikel im Akkusativ - indefinite articles in the

accusative case

If you don't remember about unbestimmte Artikel, you can check out our video on
unbestimmte Artikel im Nominativ.

Ich esse einen Apfel.

In this case the Akkusativ objekt is einen Apfel. Whenever this Akkusativ objekt is
Maskulin, just like here, the article changes from ein to einen. You must remember
that this happens only in the case of a masculine article and only when it is an
accusative object. Similarly, Ich habe einen Bruder. Er trinkt einen Saft. Wir kaufen
einen Tisch. In all these cases, the objects are masculine, hence ein changes to
einen.

Now let's look at an Akkusativ objekt that is feminin.

Ich habe eine Katze.
Here, the Akkusativ objekt is Katze and the article remains eine just like in the
Nominativ. Similarly Ich esse eine Pizza. Er trinkt eine Cola. Wie kaufen eine Lampe.
The indefinite feminine article remains eine.

Now, let's do the Akkusativ objekt when it's neutral.

Wir haben ein Baby.
In this case, again the object in Akkusativ is ein Baby and for the article ‘das’ the
unbestimmte Artikel remains ein as in the case of Nominativ. Similarly: Ich esse ein
Sandwich. Er trinkt ein Bier. Wir kaufen ein Buch. The accusative article remains EIN

Now, let's see what happens when the Akkusativ Objekt is in plural.
Ich habe zwei Brüder.
The Akkusativ Objekt here is zwei Brüder and since for plural we don't have an
unbestimmte Artikel, we don't use an unbestimmte Artikel here just like in Nominativ.
Can you give us more examples? Do leave them in the comments.

So, if we just compare the unbestimmte Artikel in Nominativ and Akkusativ, you will
notice, that for all other genders feminine and neutral the articles are the same. Only
in the case of masculine the ein changes to einen. So, to make your learning easier
you have to only remember that whenever the Akkusativ Objekt is masculine, article
changes from ein to einen.

Now, let's come to bestimmte Artikel im Akkusativ

If you don't remember what are bestimmte Artikel, you can check out our video on
bestimmte Artikel im Nominativ.

So, let's again begin with an Akkusativ Objekt in maskulin.

Wie findest du den Hut?
Den Hut finde ich schön. - You could also say - Ich finde den Hut schön. It’s
absolutely fine.

As I mentioned before, the Akkusativ Artikel changes only when it's masculine, in
case of bestimmte Artikel, ‘der’ changes to ‘den’. Here are some more examples:
Wo finde ich den Schlüssel?
Er trinkt den Saft nicht.
Den Tisch kaufen wir.
As you can see, the objects in these sentences are masculine, hence DER changes
to DEN

Coming to the feminin Akkusativ Objekt

Wie findest du die Hose?
Die Hose finde ich cool.
So, when the Akkusativ Objekt is feminine, the article remains the same as in
Nominativ, that is, ‘die’.

So, now we come to the neutral Akkusativ Objekt.

Wie findest du das Kleid?
Das Kleid finde ich elegant.
Even in this case, the Akkusativ Objekt with an article ‘das’ remains ‘das’ just as in
Nominativ.

Now, let's come to an Akkusativ Objekt in plural.

Wie findest du die Schuhe?
Die Schuhe finde ich teuer.

When the Akkusativ Objekt is plural, with the article ‘die’, it remains the same as it
was in Nominativ, that is ‘die’.
Another thing that I would like to tell you here is, that the Akkusativ Objekt can also
be at the beginning of a sentence, just like in the sentences we did.
Die Schuhe finde ich teuer.
In this case die Schuhe is the Akkusativ Objekt and it stays in the first position. The
verb will always be in the second position.

Now, let's put these articles together with the nominative articles. As you can see
and as already discussed before the Akkusativ Objekt changes only when the article
is masculine, that is ‘der’ changes to ‘den’. All the other articles in feminine neutral or
plural remain the same.

Now let's come to the Negative Artikel im Akkusativ

So again, we start with Akkusativ Objekt in Maskulin.
Hast du einen Kuli?
Nein, ich habe keinen Kuli.
Just like the unbestimmte Artikel ‘einen’, the negative article for masculine in
accusative is ‘keinen’.
Coming to the feminine object.
Hast du eine Uhr?
Nein, ich habe keine Uhr.
Similar to ‘eine’ the negative article here would be ‘keine’

So, now the article is neutral.

Hast du ein Lineal?
Nein, ich habe kein Lineal.
Similar to the unbestimmte Artikel ‘ein’, the negative article is ‘kein’

Now coming to the plural form.

Hast du Kinder?
Nein, ich habe keine Kinder.
So, when the Akkusativ Objekt is in plural, the negative article would be ‘keine’.

Now, let's once again look at the table to compare the Nominativ and Akkusativ
Artikel.
As mentioned before only the Maskulin akkusativ objekt changes. In this case, ‘kein’
would change to ‘keinen’.

Summarizing everything we have learned today, let’s look at a few sentences - to

make it easier to differentiate between Nominativ and Akkusativ:

Das ist ein Apfel. The article for Apfel is DER. In this sentence, it is nominative
subject. Also in the next sentence: Der Apfel ist grün. In the third sentence: ich habe
einen Apfel. The subject is not the apple, but ICH - hence apple is the object. Since it
is masculine, and also the object, the article ein changes to EINEN. Also in case of
definite articles - DER changes to DEN - Den Apfel finde ich süß.

Great! Now, let's put all the Akkusativ Artikel zusammen (together)
Except for masculine, all other articles remain the same as they were in Nominativ.
In masculine only an extra ending ‘-en’ is added to ‘ein’ and ‘kein’ and ‘der’ changes
to ‘den’.

Wonderful! Hope you enjoyed this lesson.

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