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Review: Week 10

Accusative
Last week, we introduced case and talked about the nominative case. If you missed it, see the review
for week 9. We discussed accusative this week. When do you use it?

1. The direct object is in the accusative. To find the direct object, ask yourself whom or what is being
acted upon.

Wir sehen den Film. (We see the film.)

What do we see? The film. So, "the film" is the direct object.

Sie kauft ein Buch. (She buys a book.)

What does she buy? A book. "A book" is the direct object.

2. Certain prepositions take the accusative.

Erik macht das für seine Freundin. (Erik is doing it for his girlfriend.)

“Für” is a preposition that takes the accusative, so the object of the preposition (“seine Freundin”) is
accusative.

3. The phrase "es gibt" uses the accusative; this is logical because what follows the phrase is the direct
object. (The verb “geben” means to give.) “Es gibt” means “there is / there are.”

Es gibt einen Computer hier. (There is a computer here.)

Es gibt viele Studenten im Zimmer. (There are a lot of students in the room.)

4. Specific time expressions without a preposition use the accusative.

jeden Tag (every day)

dieses Jahr (this year)
die ganze Woche (the whole week)

What does the accusative look like?

Here are the same tables as above, but with the accusative added in:

Definite article (bestimmter Artikel, aka “the”)

Masc. Neuter Fem. Plural
Nom. der das die die
Akk. den das die die

Notice that “der” is the only thing that changes. These endings are also used for the “der-words.”
Here’s the same thing again as endings:

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 Masc. Neuter Fem. Plural
Nom. -er -es -e -e
Akk. -en -es -e -e

Accusative with ein-words

Just as the only thing that changes with the “der-words” is der (which becomes den in the accusative),
the only “ein-word” that changes between nominative and accusative is the masculine:

Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

Nom. ein ein eine (k)eine
Acc. einen ein eine (k)eine

So, as you can see, the only form that changes is the masculine, and it changes in the same way—it
adds an –en.

The ein-words also give us the endings we use for personal pronouns (mein, dein, sein, etc.):

Masculine Neuter Feminine Plural

Nom. no ending no ending -e -e
Acc. -en no ending -e -e

For example:

Ich habe deinen Kuli, aber ich habe dein Buch nicht.= I have your pen, but I don’t have your
book.

“Kuli” is masculine (der), and it’s in the accusative because it’s the direct object. The word your is
“dein,” so you simply add the correct ending (-en). “Buch” is also a direct object, but because it is
neuter (das), it does not get an ending in the accusative.

Er hört seine Musik viel zu laut. = He listens to his music much too loudly.

“Musik” is feminine (die), and it’s in the accusative because it is a direct object. His is “sein” in
German, so you add the correct ending (-e).

See the week 9 review on Blackboard for a thorough list of all personal pronouns and a description of
how to use them.

Personal pronouns (Personalpronomen)

Personal pronouns exist in English as well, and (surprise!) you’ve already been using them in the
nominative case all semester when you conjugate verbs. Here they are with their meanings in English:

ich du er es sie wir ihr sie Sie

I you he it she we you they you (formal)

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Here are the forms in nominative and accusative:

Nominative ich du er es sie wir ihr sie Sie

Accusative mich dich ihn es sie uns euch sie Sie
me you him it her us you them you

Ich/mich is like I/me. Du follows the same pattern. Er/es/sie follows the der-word pattern, i.e. only er changes
to ihn and es and sie stay the same. Uns is one letter off from us. For ihr, you use the first two letters of “euer”
and then use a “ch” like with ich and du. Sie and sie stay the same.

Notice that these words DO NOT get endings. Only the possessive pronouns (mein, dein, sein, etc.) get
endings. Here’s how you can remember: “ein” gets endings (einen in masculine/accusative and eine/keine in
feminine and plural forms) and the possessives rhyme with “ein” (mein, dein, sein, etc.).

Here are some examples:

Wir sehen dich am Freitag. = We’ll see you on Friday.

Sie kommt nicht. = She’s not coming.
Wir sehen sie nicht. = We won’t see her.

Notice this, too:

Das Poster ist cool. Ich kaufe es. = The poster is cool. I’m buying it.
Der Kaffee ist gut. Ich kaufe ihn. = The coffee is good. I’m buying it.
Die Musik ist schön. Ich kaufe sie. = The music is pretty. I’m buying it.

Remember that gender is based on the article (der, die, das), and not the natural gender, so when you’re
plugging in pronouns for objects, use whatever corresponds to the article:

der = er
das = es
die = sie

Don’t think; plug it in. Most of the time, though, you’ll just be using “es” for the generic “it” like this:

Was ist es? = What is it?

Es ist kalt heute. = It is cold today.

Negating words

We also talked a bit about negating words this week. Here’s how it works:

Das ist ein Mann. Das ist kein Mann. Das ist eine Frau.
(That’s a man. That’s not a man. That’s a woman.)

So, if you see “ein” in any form, put a “k” on the front. Otherwise, use “nicht.”

Das ist die Professorin. Das ist nicht die Professorin. Das ist meine Freundin.
(That’s the professor. That’s not the professor. That’s my friend.)

Can you stick a “k” on “die”? No. So, we use “nicht.”

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FYI Extra for Super Grammar Nerds like Dr. Condray: You also use “kein” if there’s no article used
at all, as in this example:

Ist das Kaffee? Das ist kein Kaffee. Das ist Tee.
(Is that coffee? That’s not coffee. That’s tea.)

This is just an extra beautiful tidbit of pure knowledge for you. You won’t be tested on it.