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Lesson 9: Introduction to Akkusativ (the direct object case)

Vocabulary: At the supermarket

Completing this lesson will add to your overall progress:

VocabularyA1+4%A2+1%
GrammarA1+5%A2+2%

How to work with this lesson

  1. Read the rule — understand the logic (5 minutes)
  2. Translate the exercises in writing — check against the key
  3. Say it out loud — slowly, consciously, analyzing every article
  4. Speed up — run the matrix until it flies out on autopilot

Eight lessons down. You survived. Now real German begins — cases. Don't panic. Russian has six. German has four. And the first one is the easiest. You already know cases from English, you just forgot. We still say "I/me", "he/him", "who/whom". That's case. Germans never gave them up.

Part 1: What Akkusativ is and why you need it

Up to now you built sentences in Nominativ — the doer, the subject: Der Mann kauft ein. (The man shops.)

Akkusativ answers the question Wen? Was? (Whom? What?) — the direct object, what the action hits.

I see my brother. Whom? → brother → Akkusativ. Compare English: "I see he"? No. "I see him." That m in "him" — that's the leftover Akkusativ ending in English. German just kept doing it everywhere.

Here's the gift: in Akkusativ, only the masculine article changes. Everything else stays the same.

Part 2: The main hack — only masculine changes

Burn this into your head and you'll never mess up:

Only masculine changes. der → den, ein → einen. Feminine, neuter, plural — untouched. One gender out of four. That's a freebie.

Compare with Russian, where almost everything changes. Here — one letter -n in one gender. Done.

Part 3: Article table — Nominativ vs. Akkusativ

Masculine (der)Neuter (das)Feminine (die)Plural (die)
Nominativder / eindas / eindie / einedie
Akkusativden / einendas / eindie / einedie

Three things to nail down:

  1. Masculine — the only one where the article changes: der → den, ein → einen. Just add -n.
  2. Neuter, feminine, plural — identical to Nominativ. Zero changes. Pure freebie.
  3. Possessives work like ein: mein → meinen, dein → deinen, sein → seinen — but again, only in masculine.

Trap! In masculine Akkusativ the indefinite article is einen, not ein. Drop the -n and you've made a mistake. Ich kaufe ein Kuchen — wrong. Ich kaufe einen Kuchen — right.

Part 4: Verbs that demand Akkusativ

Most transitive verbs take Akkusativ. The big ones:

VerbEnglishExample
habento have ≈ haveIch habe einen Hund
sehento see ≈ seeDu siehst den Preis
brauchento needEr braucht einen Korb
kaufento buyWir kaufen den Fisch
suchento look for ≈ seekSie sucht die Kasse
findento find ≈ findIch finde das Angebot
trinkento drink ≈ drinkDu trinkst den Saft
essento eat ≈ eatEr isst einen Apfel
nehmento takeWir nehmen die Tüte
lesento readSie liest den Kassenbon
möchtenwould likeIch möchte einen Rabatt

Stem-changing verbs sneak back in: sehen → du siehst, essen → er isst, nehmen → du nimmst, lesen → sie liest. You already met these in Lesson 5. The point now: whatever follows them is in Akkusativ.

Part 5: Word order — Akkusativ object after the verb

Word order with Akkusativ is simple — same as English:

Ich kaufe den Kuchen. — I'm buying the cake. Wir brauchen einen Einkaufswagen. — We need a shopping cart. Sie sieht das Sonderangebot. — She sees the special offer.

Pattern: WHO (Nominativ) + verb + WHAT/WHOM (Akkusativ)

Nothing new structurally. But now you consciously pick the article: ask Wen? Was? — if there's an answer, it's Akkusativ, which means masculine flips.

Next up: Lesson 10 — Dativ, the second case. The question "to whom?" New article: dem. But the principle is the same: ask the question → identify the case → pick the article. And here's a teaser: Dativ has even fewer changes than Akkusativ.

Lesson 9: Introduction to Akkusativ (the direct object case) · Deutsch · Glottos Matrix