In English the articles “the”, “a” and “an” do not change depending on whether the noun is accusative or nominative. (Only pronouns change ...
In English the articles “the”, “a” and “an” do not change depending on whether the noun is accusative or nominative. (Only pronouns change case in English: compare “She sees me” and “I see her”.)In German not only the personal pronouns but also many other words change their form based on case. The articles (der, ein, kein, etc.), possessive adjectives (mein, dein, etc.), and a few (unusual) nouns all change their form (usually by adding or changing endings) depending on what case they are in. Right now we’ll be dealing mostly with the definite articles (der/die/das) and the indefinite articles (ein/eine); the table below shows how they change in the accusative case:
Nominative | ||
Definite | Indefinite | |
Masc. | Der Tisch ist braun. | Das ist ein Tisch. |
Fem. | Die Lampe ist neu. | Das ist eine Lampe. |
Neut. | Das Fenster ist offen. | Das ist ein Fenster. |
Plural | Die Bücher sind interessant. | Das sind keine Bücher. |
All of the nouns above are in the nominative case because they are
the subjects of the sentences or because they follow the verb “sein.”
the subjects of the sentences or because they follow the verb “sein.”
Accusative | ||
Definite | Indefinite | |
Masc. | Ich sehe den Tisch. | Ich habe einen Tisch. |
Fem. | Ich sehe die Lampe. | Ich habe eine Lampe. |
Neut. | Ich sehe das Fenster. | Ich habe ein Fenster. |
Plural | Ich sehe die Bücher. | Ich habe keine Bücher. |
The nouns above are all in the accusative case because they are direct objects.