German accusative case (one stop shop)

In this one stop shop on the German accusative case, you’ll get a summary and detail on 1) What it is 2) When to use it and 3) What the special accusative case forms of certain words are. There’s a clear explanation of the German case endings and my handy all-in-one table German case endings table. We’ll finish with some take-away tips in summary.

Let’s get started! Los geht’s!

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What is the German accusative case?

The nominative case, der Akkusativ in German, is one of German’s four grammatical cases (Fälle). The others are the nominative, dative and genitive. 

Case is simply a word for a category into which we put a noun (person or thing) depending on its role in the sentence in relation to other nouns (or pronouns) and the verb (state or action word). Who does what to whom with whose… and so on.  

German mostly signals case by a change in the form not of the noun itself, but of three other types of word: pronouns, determiners and adjectives.

Pronouns are small words like “he”, “it”, “they” which can stand in for naming a person. English too has case-specific forms for pronouns.

Determiners are small class of function words that make clear which one of a noun we mean, for example this apple, the apple, an apple, my apple, all apples. 

Adjectives are words that describe what somebody or something is like – also take case endings add specific information about it, for example big apples, the red apple, those tasty apples. German, unlike English, adds case endings to determiners and adjectives.

In the usage part of this post, we’ll explain when a noun (or pronoun) goes in the accusative case. 

First, let’s look German accusative case forms. We’ll start with German pronouns in the accusative and then looking at the accusative case endings of determiners (often divided by teachers into so-called der words and ein words) and adjectival endings in the accusative.  

German accusative case forms

The questions Wen? or Was? in the accusative case

The accusative is often called the Wen-Fall, as it’s often possible to identify what goes into the accusative by asking the W-Frage (W-question) Wen? or Was? Who(m)? or What? is the recipient or object of the action of the verb. The nominative is the Wer-Fall (Wer? Who? does the action). the dative is the Wem-Fall (Wem? To whom is the action directed or the object given). The genitive is the Wessen-Fall (Wessen? Whose is something?).

Here are some examples of Wen-Fragen (and answers) with the accusative case endings underlined:

Wen trifft sie später? Whom is she meeting later? Sie trifft ihren Bruder später. She is meeting her brother later.

Was hat sie gegessen? What has she eaten? Sie hat den grünen Apfel gegessen. She has eaten the green apple.

Was hast du gehört? What did you hear? Ich habe das schöne Lied gehört. I heard the song.

Wen besucht ihr am Wochenende? Whom are you visiting on the weekend? Wir besuchen unsere lieben Großeltern am Wochenende. We are visiting our dear grandparents at the weekend.

Was hat er gekauft? What has he bought? Er hat interessante neue Bücher gekauft. He has bought (some) interesting new books.

In the accusative, we can also ask after an object with Was für eins? in the sense of What kind of an…? .

Was für einen Wagen fährt er? What kind of car does he drive?

We’ll explain the underlined case endings later in the post, in the sections on articles and determiners and on adjectival endings.

German pronouns in the accusative case (compared with the nominative, dative)

Overview table of German pronouns

Nouns in German don’t have special endings for the accusative case but pronouns (words that stand in for a noun) do.  There are seven pronoun words in German and most of them vary according to case. English too has retained a set of case-specific pronouns (even though most other case forms vanished from English centuries ago).  

In the table below you can see the German pronouns across accusative, nominative and dative cases (and their English equivalents). There are genitive pronouns, but they are very rarely used.

German and English nominative (subject) pronoun		German accusative (direct object) pronoun	German dative (indirect object) pronoun	English (direct or indirect) object pronoun
ich	I	mich	mir	me
du	(informal: thou)	dich	dir	(thee)
er	he	ihn/es	ihm	him/it
sie	she	sie	ihr	her
es	it	es	ihm	it
wir	we	uns	uns	us
ihr	you (plural, informal)	euch	euch	you
Sie/sie	you (formal sing, plural)  / they	Sie/sie	Ihnen/ihnen	you / them

German accusative pronouns: example sentences

Let’s look a bit closer at how to use the accusative personal pronoun. Take this example:

Ich sehe ihn. I see him.

Wen oder was sehe ich? Whom or what do I see?  I see him.  Him is the object, expressed with the accusative form of the pronoun er which is ihn. Wer sieht? Who’s seeing? I’m the one doing the action, so we need the nominative pronoun ich. 

Here are some more examples of German personal pronouns in the accusative case. Notice that sie/Sie (her, they or you (formal singular or plural) is the same as in the nominative): 

Er kennt mich. He knows me.

Sie ruft ihn an. She is calling him.

Wir treffen euch. We are meeting you all.

Ihr liebt uns. You love us.

Wir suchen sie. We are looking for her (or for them, or if Sie captialised: for you, singular or plural formal).

German articles and other determiners in the accusative case

Determiners are a class of function words that “narrow down” a noun to help us answer the question Which one(s)?  The cat, a cat, this cat, that cat, each cat, every cat, some cats, various cats, many cats.

There are a handful of fixed determiners in German, such as ein paar (a few).  Most determiners, though, have case endings.  

Now, in order to get the right case ending for a determiner (or an adjective) in the accusative case (or any other case), you must know the gender of the noun (or, if there is more than one of the person or thing, the plural form).  Is a thing der, die or das?  If you’re not familiar with the concept of grammatical gender, check out my post How to remember German noun gender: the ultimate guide. On plurals see German noun plurals: the ultimate guide.  

Der-word accusative endings

To use the accusative case correctly, you also need to know the default set of strong endings, those of the determiner dies- (this) and the circumstance in which they are replaced by weak endings (or no ending at all). 

We can call the dies- endings strong endings. That’s because, in comparison to the alternative set of endings (the weak endings) they pack more informational punch about the case of the noun to which they refer (its role in the sentence). We can see the strong, dies- accusative endings underlined in the table below:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	dieser	diese	dieses	diese
Accusative	diesen	diese	dieses	diese
Dative	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen
Genitive	dieses	dieser	dieses	dieser

We’re going to add to this table later in this post.  

For now, note that most other determiners have exactly the same endings as dies-.  They are called the der words and include alle- (all), einige- (some), jede- (each), jene-  (that), welche- (which) and a handful of others.  

Der, die and das follow the dies- pattern but notice that the der, die, das stems are shorter across the cases (and that the neuter form has a middle a, das in the nominative and the accusative. We can see the accusative forms of the definite article in the accusative row of this table: 

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	der	die	das	die
Accusative	den	die	das	die
Dative	dem	der	dem	den
Genitive	des	der	des	der

Ein word accusative endings

A small number of determiners, called ein words, drop the dies- endings in the nominative of masculine and neuter nouns and the accusative (neuter nouns only). 

Besides ein (meaning a/ an), the other ein words are kein- (no, none) and the possessives mein (my), dein (singular your, informal), sein (his), unser- (our), eur- (plural your, informal), Ihr (your, formal) and ihr- (her, their). As ein does not itself have a plural form, we’ve used keine in the table to illustrate the plural ein word case endings:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	ein (X)	eine	ein (X)	(keine)
Accusative	einen	eine	ein (X)	(keine)
Dative	einem	einer	einem	(keinen)
Genitive	eines	einer	eines	(keiner)

We can consolidate the endings in the previous three tables into one table of der and ein word case endings (with nominative once again in the top row):  

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	dieser ein-X	diese	dieses ein-X	diese
Accusative	diesen	diese	dieses ein-X	diese
Dative	diesem	dieser	diesem	diesen
Genitive	dieses	dieser	dieses	dieser

German courses often overcomplicate declension by splitting out the ending sets into a plethora of separate tables that only leave us feeling confused.  

Instead, let’s understand the system and consolidate the table into our handy all-in-one table (in its final version, below). It contains all the ending information you need. Keep the table for (frequent)  reference and to learn example phrases to illustrate the endings. 

German strong adjectival endings in the accusative case

When we use an adjective before a noun without a determiner, the adjective takes the strong endings.  It’s is if the adjective is forced to do the heavy lifting of showing the case information because there is no determiner to do the work.  The adjectival endings are the same endings as dies- (except that the genitive masculine and neuter adjectival ending is -en not -es).  Here are some simple examples in the accusative:

(Der Wein) Ich trinke nur französichen Wein. I only drink French wine.

(Die Laune) Heute hat sie schlechte Laune. Today she’s in a bad mood (lit: has a bad mood).

(Das Bier) Wir kaufen kaltes Bier. We buy/are buying cold beer.

(Plural) Ich mag große Hunde.  I like large dogs.

In the same way, if there is a determiner before the adjective, but the determiner does not have a strong ending, the adjective has to step up and show the information.  Remember there are only three determiners that don’t have strong endings: ein words in the nominative (masculine or neuter nouns only) or accusative (neuter nouns only): 

(Nominative, masculine) Ein alter Mann sitzt auf dem Stuhl. An old man is sits (is sitting) on the chair.

(Nominative, neuter)  Das ist ein schweres Problem. That’s a difficult problem.

(Neuter, accusative) Sie kauft ein neues Heft. She buys a new exercise book.

(Neuter, accusative) Ich sehe ein kleines Kind. I see a small child.

German weak adjectival endings in the accusative case

When an adjective follows a determiner that does have the strong ending, the adjective does not have that strong ending. It can, as it were, relax into the weak ending. 

In other words, if an adjective follows a determiner, the adjective will have the weak ending except after ein words in three cases: masculine and neuter nominative and neuter accusative. You’ll remember from the section above that those three ein words are the ones that don’t have any endings themselves.  

The weak ending is -e for all genders in the nominative singular nouns and before feminine and neuter accusative nouns.  Otherwise the weak ending is always –en.  

Table of weak adjectival endings: 

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	alte	alte	alte	alten
Accusative	alten	alte	alte	alten
Dative	alten	alten	alten	alten
Genitive	alten	alten	alten	alten

Examples in the accusative:

(Der Mantel) Der alte Mann legte seinen blauen Mantel auf dem Stuhl.  The old man put his coat on the chair.

(Der Mann) Ich kenne diesen jungen Mann aber gar nicht. I don’t know this young man at all.

(Die Kirche). Gestern haben wir die alte Kirche besucht. We visited the old church yesterday.

(Das Zimmer) Er putzt das kleine Zimmer. He cleans the small room.

(Die Kirchen pl) Gestern haben wir die alten Kirchen besucht. We visited the old churches yesterday.

Now we can add add the weak adjective forms in red to produce one, handy all-in-one table, in its final version (below).

Dr P’s handy all-in-one German case endings table

This table contains all the ending information you need to get the right ending on a determiner or adjective. Keep the table for (frequent) reference and to learn example phrases to illustrate the endings:

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	dieser ein-X! -e!	diese -e	dieses ein-X! -e!	diese -en
Accusative	diesen –en	diese -e	dieses ein-X! -e!	diese -en
Dative	diesem -en	dieser -en	diesem -en	diesen -en
Genitive	dieses (-en, strong adjs too!)	dieser -en	dieses (-en, strong adjs too!)	dieser -en

X flags no ending (ein words in nominative (masculine and neuter, accusative neuter). Red indicates the weak adjectival endings (also used for adjectives in the genitive without a determiner, where you’d expect a strong ending).

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When to use the German accusative case

Accusative for the direct object of a clause

Explanation

The direct object is the person or thing affected by the action of the verb in a clause. The butt of the joke, if you like :). Put it in the accusative.

A clause, by the way, is a phrase that contains at least a verb (word describing an action or a state) and a subject (the doer of the action or the person or thing in the state).  A clause can itself sometimes be a sentence on its own but some sentences are a collection of clauses strung together.  

For example, “I see.” “Jack built the house.” are both clauses and sentences. “I see the house that Jack built” is a sentence combined of two clauses.

An easy way to identify the direct object is to ask yourself “Wen?” (Who(m)?) or “Was?” (What?) is in the state or doing the action. For this reason, Germans sometimes call the accusative der Wen-Fall (Wer? case).

Take these sentences:

Der Mann gewinnt den großen Kampf. The man wins the big fight.

Whom or what does der Mann win? Den Kampf! So, Kampf goes into the accusative. Kampf is masculine, so we flag the case with den, the masculine accusative form. Mann is doing the action, he’s the subject, so it’s der Mann (masculine nominative definite article). (For all the forms of the definite article der (die, das etc) and other determiners, see the section on German articles and other determiners earlier in this post).

As we saw in the section on German articles and other determiners, above, it’s only masculine determiners (der words and ein words) that have a special accusative form (der becomes den).

Examples of German sentences with a subject (nominative) and a direct object (accusative)

Here are some more examples of simple sentences with a direct object in the accusative. We’ll start with a masculine direct object:

Der Bauer trägt einen roten Hut. The farmer is wearing a hat

Durch das Fenster sieht die Frau ihren Sohn. The woman sees her son through the window. (Don’t let your English brain be thrown by the word order here. Remember, it’s the case markers, not the word order are central to the meaning).

Die Kinder streicheln den alten Hund. The children are stroking the old dog.

And here are examples some with feminine, neuter and plural direct objects (underlined). Of course, in the accusative the determiner and adjectival endings for feminine and neuter (and plural), are the same as in the nominative:

Der Tourist hat das alte Schloß besucht. The tourist visited the old castle.

Die Wohnung hat eine neue Kuche. The apartment has a new kitchen.

Unsere neuen deutschen Nachbarn habe ich noch nicht kennengelernt. I haven’t met our new German neighbours yet. (Don’t let the German word order confuse you as to the meaning!)

Distinguishing the German direct object (accusative) from the indirect object (dative)

Here’s a sentence which illustrates the accusative along with the nominative and the dative cases:  

Der neue Lehrer gibt der kleinen Schülerin einen Keks. The new teacher gives the little schoolgirl a biscuit. 

Who is doing the action?  Der Lehrer!  So, Lehrer is nominative. In contrast, einen Keks is the thing that’s given. It’s acted on directly by the verb and so it’s the direct object (accusative case).  The little schoolgirl is less directly affected by the action. She is the object that is the recipient of the main object. In other words, she’s the indirect object (dative case).  

Here are some more examples of simple German sentences with a subject (nominative), a direct object (accusative) and an indirect object (dative):

Ich habe meinem Chef einen Vorschlag gemacht. I made a suggestion to my boss.

Die Schiedsrichterin zeigt dem Stürmer die Gelbe Karte.The referee shows the striker the yellow card.

Der Kellner reicht den Gästen die Speisekarte. The waiter passes the menu to the guests.

Schenkst du deinem Vater eine Uhr? Are you giving (as a gift) your father a watch?

Mein Freund zeigt seiner Schwester das neue Auto. My friend shows his sister the new car.

Wir bringen den Kindern die Geschenke. We’re bringing the children the presents.

Accusative for most nouns used greetings and wishes

Most common German “set phrase” greetings and wishes are in the accusative. 

Vielen Dank. Thank you very much.

Guten Morgen. Good morning.

Guten Rutsch (ins neue Jahr). Happy New Year!

Gute Besserung. Get well soon.

Angenehme Reise. (Have a) pleasant journey.

It’s not immediately obvious that the nouns in these examples are the object. Actually, the verb is implied (and so, in the last four examples, is ein): Ich wünsche dir einen guten Morgen, and so on.

Accusative to express a length of time or a specific time

We use the accusative to express a period of time during which something continues or a specific point in time when something happens.

Period of time when something continued

Wir haben den ganzen Tag am Strand verbracht. We spent the whole day at the beach.

Ich war den ganzen Sommer lang / drei Monate lang / einen Monat unterwegs. I was travelling all summer / for three months / a month.

Das Programm wird jeden Tag wiederholt. The programme is repeated every day.

Wo warst du die ganze Zeit? Where were you the whole time?

Mein ganzes Leben habe ich in Heidelberg gewohnt. I’ve lived in Heidelberg my whole life.

Specific time when something happened

Sie kommt jeden Tag und er kommt jede Woche.  She comes every day and he comes every week. 

Ich habe ihn (am) letzten Montag gesehen. I saw him last Monday (am = an dem can be added).

Wir haben ihn letzte Woche / letztes Jahr kennengelernt.  (We got to know him last week / last year).  

Wir besuchen sie (am) nächsten Mittwoch.  We’re visiting her next Wednesday.

Er wird dieses Jahr fünfzig. He’ll be fifty this year.

Be aware that, for indefinite time expressions, we use the genitive case:

Eines schonen Tages…. Eines Morgens… One fine day… One morning…

Accusative to express a unit of measurement or value

When we talk about how long, heavy, valuable, tall, somebody or something is, the unit of measurement is in the accusative case

Das ist keinen Pfennig wert! That’s not even worth a pfennig!

Es ist nur einen Zentimeter groß. It is only a centimetre tall.

Der Tisch ist einen Meter lang. The table is a/one meter long.

Du bist einen halben Kopf größer als ich. You’re half a head taller than me.

Die Kirche ist einen Kilometer entfernt. The church is a kilometre away from here.

Das Haus war nur einen Steinwurf entfernt. The house was only a stone’s throw away.

Die Wald liegt eine Stunde von der Stadt. The forest is an hour from the town.

Accusative follows some prepositions

Prepositions are function words like “in”, “under”, “for” “at” that typically indicate position, direction or time.  In German, they determine the case of the noun or pronoun to which they refer.

Accusative only prepositions

Some German prepositions always require the accusative. The most common are bis, für (for), ohne (without); durch (through), entlang (along), um (round, around), gegen. 

FUDGOB a fun acronym to help you remember the accusative only prepositions in German: Fancy Unicorns Dancing Goofy Onstage Ballet.

Here are some examples of each (masculine).  

Sie demonstrieren für den Freiden. They are demonstrating for peace. 

Das Rathaus liegt um die Ecke. The townhall is round the corner.

Sie fahren um den Berg herum. They drive around the mountain.

Wir gehen durch den Park. We are going through the park.

Seid Ihr für oder gegen meinen Plan? Are you for or against my plan?

Ich kann nicht ohne dich leben! I can’t live without you.

Bis nächste Woche!  Until next week! (said as a farewell)

Das Stück läuft bis nächsten Dienstag im Stadttheater. 

Accusative or dative prepositions (Wechselpräpositionen)

There are nine prepositions that demand der Akkusitiv when there is movement in a specific direction. When there is no movement in relation to the place, however, they are used with der Dativ.  These are the Wechselpräpositionen (literally “variable prepositions”):

an (on, to, at); auf (on, in, to, at); hinter (behind); in (in, into, to); neben (next to, beside); über (over, across, above); unter (under, among); vor (in front of, before); zwischen (between). 

The prepositions of position (or place) require the accusative if there is movement relative to the position (or place) and the dative if there is no movement.

To help make the distinction clear, it’s useful to think whether the question would be Wo? (Where? in the sense of at what place) or Wohin? (Where to? Whither?) 

(Dative) Wo liegt der Ball?  Der Ball liegt unter dem Tisch. Where is the ball (lying)? The ball is (lying) under the table.

(Accusative) Wohin rollt der Ball? Der Ball rollt unter den Tisch. Where is the ball rolling to? The ball is rolling (to) under the table.

Just because there’s a verb of motion doesn’t mean you’ll always use the accusative. It depends on the situation. The key, as I say, is do we have movement in relation to or from the object? In the previous sentence, the sense is that the ball is rolling to under the table from somewhere else, not that it’s rolling around under the table. There’s the same movement to somewhere (we can ask Wohin?) in this sentence:

(Accusative) Ich gehe in den Park. I’m going/walking to the park.

But if the movement isn’t to the park but within the park (Wo?), we need the dative:

(Dative) Ich spaziere im (= in dem) Park. I’m strolling/stroll in the park.

Here are is another example of the variable prepositions with movement (accusative, Wohin?), contrasted with a dative (Wo?) : 

(Dative) Das Bild hängt an der Wand.  The picture hangs on the wall. 

(Accusative) Er hängt das Bild an die Wand. He hangs the picture on the wall. 

Flexible German word order and the accusative case

In English, we don’t have case forms to flag the subject. We rely on word order.  The subject has to come in front of a verb and the object after. German’s case endings mean that the German sentence allow much more flexibility, so you really need to pay attention to them. 

To illustrate this, let’s switch round the positions of move man in front of the verb in this English sentence: 

The dog bites the man. > The man bites the dog. Pretty different meaning, uh?

Now let’s do the same in German:

Der Hund beißt den Mann. = Den Mann beißt der Hund.

in German the basic meaning doesn’t change because original case of Mann and Hund in the sentence is still clear from the unchanged nominative masculine article der for the subject doing the action, the dog, and the object receiving it: not der Mann (nominative) but den Man (accusative).

By moving den Mann to position one (in front of the verb), there is just a nuanced change in the German to put more emphasis on who got bitten.

To get the same effect in English we have to rephrase using a more complex sentence structure. Sometimes we use extra spoken emphasis in addition or instead:

It was the man that the dog bit. (As opposed, say, to the girl or the cat).

So, in German, don’t assume that the accusative object will come after the verb in a simple sentence as it has to do in English. 

To finish, let’s summarise with some key Akkusativ takeaways!

Key takeaways on the German accusative case

German has four cases, the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.  The cases are categories into which we put nouns (or pronouns) depending on their function in a clause. 

When to use the German accusative

Der Akkusative, the accusative is the case used for:

• the object of a clause or sentence.  That’s to say, the person or thing that directly receives the action of the verb; 
• for most nouns used in greetings and wishes;
• to express a duration of time or a specific point in time;
• with units of measurement or value;
• always with some prepositions;
• with other prepositions accusative if there is movement in relation to the location,(otherwise, dative).

German flags case mainly with changes to the form of pronouns and endings on determiners and adjectives (no special noun endings at all in the nominative case, beyond the usual plural endings, when needed). It’s best to study case endings as one system. 

Accusative case-specific forms

Here’s a summary of the accusative case-specific forms:

• To master the accusative case endings – and all the others – you need to know the gender of a noun and also how to form German plurals. 
• We can see the accusative determiner endings or strong endings from dies-: diesen (masculine), diese (feminine) dieses (neutral) and diese (plural).  All other determiners have these endings in the accusative except ein word and other ein words before a neuter noun (when ein has no ending).
• If an adjective stands before a noun alone without a determiner, or comes after an ein word with no ending (i.e. before neuter nouns), the adjective takes the strong dies- ending (i.e. -en, -e , -es, -e). Otherwise, the adjective has the weak ending If the adjective comes after a determiner that already has the strong endings (-en in the masculine singular, -e in the feminine and neuter and -en in the plural).
• Pronouns have accusative forms: ich > mich; du > dich; er > ihn; wir > uns; ihr > euch (but sie/Sie stays the same).

Two accusative case mistakes to avoid

To finish, here are two accusative case ending pitfalls to guard against (also relevant to the nominative case):

• Don’t add -es to ein words (in the accusative, or nominative)(ich habe Xeines HausX).
• Remember that adjective strong plural ending in the accusative (and nominative) is -e and weak is -en: Im Cafe kann man gute Getränke kaufen. Die alten Männer essen gemeinsam verschiedene leckere Gerichte.

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Well done on completing this all-you-need-to know overview of the German accusative case! You’ve discovered when the accusative is used, reviewed the accusative pronouns and seen that the system of accusative (and other) case endings really isn’t so complicated. Keep my all-in-one endings table to hand for reference as you read and write German. Learn some example phrases from the post to help the fix the accusative patterns in your memory that you can draw and adapt as you speak. Viel Efolg!

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