Understanding German cases is extremely important. The German accusative case is typically the second of theGerman Caseslearned by students. German accusative case: mainly used for direct objects and objects of accusative prepositions. A direct object is the noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb (i.e. they are acted upon).
Example:
Die Frau füttertden Hund. / The woman feedsthe dog.
The direct object can be identified by asking, “Who or what is being ‘verbed’?” For the above example we can ask: Who or what is being fed? The answer is “the dog”. Hence, the dog is thedirect objectof the sentence. It is in theaccusative case.
The accusative case only affects masculine nouns: the definite article changes from “der” to “den.” The indefinite article “ein” (masculine) changes to “einen.”Feminine and neutral nouns do not change.
Examples:
Ich riecheden Kuchen.I smell the cake.
(“der Kuchen” is a masculine noun. In the accusative, “der” becomes “den”.)
Ich riechedie Blume.I smell the flower
(“die Blume” is a feminine noun. In the accusative it does not change.)
When a person is the direct object of a sentence, or when we use a personal pronoun to refer to a noun (ex.: I smell the cake. -> I smellit.), then we need use the accusative pronouns.
Examples:
Ich rufeihnan.I call him.(“er” in the accusative changes to “ihn”.)
Wir liebenes.We love it.(“es” in the accusative remains “es”.)
Du nervstmich.You annoy me.(“ich” in the accusative changes to “mich”.)
