What is the accusative case in English grammar
David Perry
Updated on April 30, 2026
In the grammar of some languages, the accusative, or the accusative case, is the case used for a noun when it is the direct object of a verb, or the object of some prepositions. In English, only the pronouns ‘me,’ ‘him,’ ‘her,’ ‘us,’ and ‘them’ are in the accusative.
What is accusative case give example?
For example, Hund (dog) is a masculine (der) word, so the article changes when used in the accusative case: Ich habe einen Hund. (lit., I have a dog.) In the sentence “a dog” is in the accusative case as it is the second idea (the object) of the sentence.
What is nominative case and accusative case?
Nominative case is the case used for a noun or pronoun which is the subject of a verb. Accusative case is the case used for a noun or pronoun which is the object of a sentence.
What is accusative and dative case?
Accusative: The direct object case; used to indicate direct receivers of an action. Dative / Instrumental: The indirect object and prepositional case; used to indicate indirect receivers of action and objects of prepositions. Also used to indicate things that are being used (“instruments”).What is accusative article?
Share this article with others: The accusative case, akkusativ, is the one that is used to convey the direct object of a sentence; the person or thing being affected by the action carried out by the subject. This is achieved in different ways in different languages.
How do you explain accusative?
The accusative word in a sentence is the direct object: the person or thing that is being acted upon. In the second sentence, the dog is now the subject, and the man is accusative.
What is accusative case in pronoun?
Objective Pronouns The objective (or accusative) case pronouns are me, you (singular), him/her/it, us, you (plural), them and whom. … The objective case is used when something is being done to (or given to, etc.) someone.
What is dative grammar?
In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated dat, or sometimes d when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in “Maria Jacobo potum dedit”, Latin for “Maria gave Jacob a drink”.How do you know if a sentence is Akkusativ or Dativ?
Example: I see my friend which becomes “Ich sehe meinen Freund”. The article in front of Freund becomes meinEN, which indicates the fourth case. It is not a direct action against someone anymore, therefore Akkusativ.
How do you say accusative case?- ac-cusative case.
- ac-cus-at-ive case. Estella DuBuque.
- accusative case. Ashlee Zboncak.
What are the uses of the accusative case?
The accusative case is used for the direct object of transitive verbs, for the internal object (mostly of intransitive verbs), for the subject of a subordinate infinitive (that is, not as the subject of the historical infinitive), to indicate place to which, extent or duration, and for the object of certain …
What are accusative objects?
DATIVE AND ACCUSATIVE OBJECTS In the simplest terms, the accusative is the direct object that receives the direct impact of the verb’s action, while the dative is an object that is subject to the verb’s impact in an indirect or incidental manner.
Is English nominative accusative?
Germanic and Romance languages, as well as the majority of other languages in the world, are nominative-accusative. English has no morphological case distinction between nominative and accusative, except for the pronouns, and it relies solely on word order to differentiate subject and object.
Which are the questions words used to find an accusative case?
Accusative Case vs. The accusative case is used for nouns that are the recipients of the action the subject completes. To find the direct object in the accusative case, ask “What?” after the verb.
What is case English grammar?
Case is the grammatical function of a noun or pronoun. There are only three cases in modern English, they are subjective (he), objective (him) and possessive (his). They may seem more familiar in their old English form – nominative, accusative and genitive.
How do you find nominative and accusative?
The nominative case is used for sentence subjects. The subject is the person or thing that does the action. For example, in the sentence, “the girl kicks the ball”, “the girl” is the subject. The accusative case is for direct objects.
Where do you translate an accusative case noun in an English sentence?
Accusative / direct object / “done-er” of the sentence The “accusative case” is used when the noun is the direct object in the sentence. In other words, when it’s the thing being affected (or “verbed”) in the sentence.
What is adverbial accusative?
Noun. adverbial accusative (plural adverbial accusatives) (linguistics) In some languages such as Ancient Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, German, Arabic, the use of a noun or adjective in the accusative case as an adverb.
Which verbs are accusative in German?
- Ein Kaffee: Anna trinkt einen Kaffee. A coffee: Anna drinks a coffee.
- Das Buch: Ich habe das Buch gelesen. The book: I have read the book.
- Keine Wohnung: Wir kaufen keine Wohnung. No apartment: We are not buying an apartment.
What is instrumental grammar?
In grammar, the instrumental case (abbreviated INS or INSTR) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or an abstract concept.
Which preposition governs either the accusative or dative case?
Two-way prepositions require nouns either in the accusative case or in the dative case. There are 10 two-way prepositions: an, auf, hinter, in, neben, entlang, über, unter, vor, zwischen.
Does English have accusative and dative?
English makes use of four “cases” – Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, and Dative. The term “case” applies to nouns and pronouns. … Another term for “Accusative” is ‘Objective.” A noun or pronoun is in the Dative Case when it is used as an indirect object.
Does English have a genitive case?
Modern English is an example of a language that has a possessive case rather than a conventional genitive case. That is, Modern English indicates a genitive construction with either the possessive clitic suffix “-‘s”, or a prepositional genitive construction such as “x of y”.
How do you translate accusative singular?
SINGULARPLURALACCUSATIVE-am-asABLATIVE-â-isVOCATIVE-a-ae
What is Dativ Akkusativ in German?
Akkusativ = Direct Object D.O. Dativ = Indirect Object I.O.
What's the difference between Akkusativ and Nominativ?
Nominativ, Akkusativ and Dativ are but different forms of an article depending on the status of the noun in the sentence and irrespective of the gender. If the noun is the subject in the sentence it will follow the Nominativ Case. Akkusativ is where the noun is a direct object in the sentence.
How many grammatical cases does English have?
The English language has just three cases: subjective, possessive and objective. Most nouns, many indefinite pronouns and “it” and“you” have distinctive forms only for the possessive case.
What is the difference between subjective and nominative case?
A noun or pronoun is in the subjective when it is used as the subject of the sentence or as a predicate noun. … A noun in the subjective case is often the subject of a verb. For example: “The tree fell on my car”, “the tree” is in the nominative case because it’s the subject of the verb “fell”.
