Accusative Case

The accusative case requires a declensional change with masculine nouns and most pronouns. Compare the differences between the nominative case and the accusative case with a masculine noun, a feminine noun, a neuter noun, and a plural noun with a definite article (der, die, das), an indefinite article (ein, eine), and kein.

nominative

masculine           feminine           neuter           plural

der Hund               die Katze              das Buch         die Bilder (dog, cat, book, pictures)

ein Hund               eine Katze            ein Buch          Bilder

kein Hund            keine Katze          kein Buch        keine Bilder

accusative

masculine           feminine           neuter           plural

den Hund              die Katze              das Buch          die Bilder

einen Hund           eine Katze            ein Buch          Bilder

keinen Hund        keine Katze          kein Buch        keine Bilder

Most pronouns make a change from the nominative case to the accusative case.

nominative         accusative

ich                            mich                    I, me

du                            dich                      you, you

er                             ihn                        he, him

sie s.                        sie s.                     she, her

es                             es                          it, it

wir                           uns                      we, us

ihr                           euch                     you, you (plural informal)

Sie                           Sie                        you, you (singular or plural formal)

sie pl.                      sie pl.                   they, them

niemand      niemand/niemanden no one

jemand           jemand/jemanden   someone

The accusative case in German has three primary functions:

1. It identifies the direct object in a sentence.

2. It identifies the object of an accusative preposition.

3. It identifies certain time expressions.

Direct objects

Direct objects in English and German are identical. In English, you can ask whom or what of the verb in the sentence. The answer will be the direct object. It works the same way in German.

Mein Vater besucht einen Freund.                     My father visits a friend.

(Whom does my father visit?)                             The direct object is einen Freund.

Er lernt Deutsch.                                                    He is learning German.

(What is he learning?)                                          The direct object is Deutsch.

Let’s look at a variety of sample sentences that contain accusative pronouns.

Kennst du mich nicht?	Don’t you know me?
Niemand kann dich verstehen.	No one can understand you.
Der Lehrer tadelt ihn.	The teacher criticizes him.
Herr Bauer hat sie gegrüsst.	Mr. Bauer said hello to her.
Meine Schwester hängt es an die Wand.	My sister hangs it on the wall.
Unsere Eltern lieben uns sehr.	Our parents love us a lot.
Eure Mutter hat euch gut erzogen.	Your mother has raised you well.
Professor Schmidt wird Sie jetzt prüfen.	Professor Schmidt will quiz you now.
Wer hat sie gekauft?	Who bought them?

Accusative prepositions

Also use the accusative case with noun or pronoun objects of accusative prepositions. The accusative prepositions are:

bis	till, until, as far as
durch	through, across
entlang	along(side), down (the middle)
für	for
gegen	against
ohne	without
um	around, at (time on a clock)
wider	against, contrary to (usually poetical)

The preposition bis is never followed by an article or other determiner. Therefore, it tends to be used with proper nouns. In all other instances, bis combines with other prepositions. For example, with proper nouns:

Wir fahren nur bis Goslar.                        We’re only traveling as far as Goslar.

Ich bleibe bis nächsten Freitag.               I’m staying until next Friday.

Compare with bis combined with other prepositions:

Sie spazieren bis zum Stadtpark.            They’re strolling as far as the city park.

Ich ging mit ihr bis an das Ende der      I went with her up to the end of the street.

Straße.

Der Weg führte bis ins Tal.                      The lane led as far as the valley.

The preposition entlang is also a special case. It always follows the object in the accusative prepositional phrase.

Die Feiernden gingen die Straße                                  The revelers went down the street.

entlang.

Dieser Weg führt den Bach entlang.                            This path goes along the brook.

Entlang is sometimes combined with the preposition an. For example:

Dieser Weg führt am Fluss entlang.                             This path goes along the river.

Let’s look at some sample sentences with the other accusative prepositions.

Ein Mann schwimmt durch den Fluss.                        A man is swimming across the river.

Ich habe ein Geschenk für dich.                                    I have a gift for you.

Der Junge versucht gegen den Strom                          The boy is trying to swim against the

zu schwimmen.                                                                 current.

Ich kann nicht ohne sie leben.                                      I can’t live without her.

Die Ernte ist wider alles Erwarten                               The harvest was good contrary to all

gut gewesen.                                                                     expectations.

Die Planeten bewegen sich um die                              The planets move around the sun.

Sonne.

When a pronoun that refers to an inanimate object is used in a prepositional phrase, a prepositional adverb is formed in place of the preposition followed by the pronoun. 

For example:

prepositional adverbs

(für) + ihn             =           dafür          for it

(durch) + sie         =          dadurch     through it

(um) + es               =          darum        around it

If the preposition begins with a vowel, the letter r is added to the prefix, for example, da-:

darum.

Expressions of time

Adverbial phrases that express time and tell when something occurs at a particular point in time appear in the accusative case.

Ich habe sie letzte Woche besucht.                            I visited them last week.

Er wird nächsten Sonntag                                           He’ll drop by next Sunday.

vorbeikommen.

If the adverbial phrase describes a longer period of time, the accusative case is used again, but the word lang is often placed at the end of the adverbial phrase. The English translation of such a phrase often begins with for.

Wir blieben einen Monat (lang)                          We stayed in Switzerland for a month.

in der Schweiz.

Der Kranke muss die ganze Woche                    The patient has to stay in bed the whole week.

(lang) im Bett liegen.

Wer and was

The interrogative pronouns wer and was become wen and was in the accusative case. Both can be used as direct objects, but only wen can follow a preposition as you will see later. Let’s look at some examples with direct objects.

direct objects

Wen siehst du da?                                 Whom do you see there?

Was haben Sie gefunden?                   What did you find?

As pointed out earlier, wer and was are affected by prepositions. Take special note of the pronoun was, which forms a prepositional adverb.

accusative prepositions

Für wen ist dieser Brief?                     For whom is this letter?

Gegen wen haben sie gekämpft?       Against whom did they fight?

prepositional adverbs

(für) + was           =      wofür?                 for what?

(durch) + was      =     wodurch?            through what?

If the preposition begins with a vowel, the letter r is added to the prefix, 

for example, wo-: worum (around what).