Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to recognize the accusative case, explain its function as the direct object case, and correctly apply the article changes.

Lesson Explanation

The accusative marks the direct object — who or what directly receives the action: Ich sehe den Hund. (I see the dog — “den Hund” is the direct object of “sehe”).

The article change in the accusative affects genuinely ONLY the masculine — feminine, neuter, and plural articles stay identical to the nominative:

masculine: der → den   (der Hund → den Hund)
feminine: die → die     (unchanged)
neuter: das → das        (unchanged)
plural: die → die        (unchanged)

The indefinite article follows the same pattern: ein → einen (masculine only), while eine (feminine) and ein (neuter) stay unchanged.

Certain prepositions always require the accusative, regardless of context — this fixed pairing is covered fully in Part 3, Lesson 5: für, durch, gegen, ohne, um (for, through, against, without, around): Das ist für dich. (That’s for you — “dich” is in the accusative, since “für” requires it).

The personal pronoun also changes in the accusative, as already hinted at in Part 1, Lesson 3: ich → mich, du → dich, er → ihn, sie → sie, es → es, wir → uns, ihr → euch, sie → sie.

Practice Questions