Accusative case

In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb.

In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", "us", "whom", and "them". For example, the pronoun she, as the subject of a clause, is in the nominative case ("She wrote a book"); but if the pronoun is instead the object of the verb, it is in the accusative case and she becomes her ("Fred greeted her").^[1] For compound direct objects, it would be, e.g., "Fred invited me and her to the party".

The accusative case is used in many languages for the objects of (some or all) prepositions. It is usually combined with the nominative case (for example in Latin).

The English term, "accusative", derives from the Latin accusativus, which, in turn, is a translation of the Greek αἰτιατική. The word can also mean "causative", and that might have derived from the Greeks,^[2] but the sense of the Roman translation has endured and is used in some other modern languages as the grammatical term for this case, for example in Russian (винительный).

The accusative case is typical of early Indo-European languages and still exists in some of them (including Albanian, Armenian, Latin, Sanskrit, Greek, German, Nepali, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian), in the Finno-Ugric languages (such as Finnish and Hungarian), in all Turkic languages, in Dravidian languages like Malayalam and Tamil, and in Semitic languages (such as Arabic). Some Balto-Finnic languages, such as Finnish, have two cases for objects, the accusative and the partitive case. In morphosyntactic alignment terms, both do the accusative function, but the accusative object is telic, while the partitive is not.

Modern English almost entirely lacks declension in its nouns; pronouns, however, have an understood case usage, as in them, her, him and whom, which merges the accusative and dative functions, and originates in old Germanic dative forms (see Declension in English).

Example

In the sentence The man sees the dog, the dog is the direct object of the verb "to see". In English, which has mostly lost grammatical cases, the definite article and noun – "the dog" – remain the same noun form without number agreement in the noun either as subject or object, though an artifact of it is in the verb and has number agreement, which changes to "sees". One can also correctly use "the dog" as the subject of a sentence: "The dog sees the cat."

In a declined language, the morphology of the article or noun changes with gender agreement. For example, in German, "the dog" is der Hund. This is the form in the nominative case, used for the subject of a sentence. If this article/noun pair is used as the object of a verb, it (usually) changes to the accusative case, which entails an article shift in German – Der Mann sieht den Hund (The man sees the dog). In German, masculine nouns change their definite article from der to den in the accusative case. In Nepali, "Rama sees Shyama" would be translated as रामले श्यामलाई देख्छ। Rama-le Shyama-lai dekhchha. The same sentence in Sanskrit would be रामः पश्यति श्यामम्। Rama: pashyati Shyamam.

Latin

The accusative case in Latin has minor differences from the accusative case in Proto-Indo-European. Nouns in the accusative case (accusativus) can be used:

as a direct object;
to qualify duration of time, e.g., multos annos, "for many years"; ducentos annos, "for 200 years"; this is known as the accusative of duration of time,
to qualify direction towards which e.g., domum, "homewards"; Romam, "to Rome" with no preposition needed; this is known as the accusative of place to which, and is equivalent to the lative case found in some other languages.
as the subject of an indirect statement with the verb as an infinitive, (e.g. Dixit me esse saevum, "He said that I had been cruel"; in later Latin works, such as the Vulgate, such a phrasing is replaced by quod and a regularly ordered sentence, having the subject in the nominative and the verb in the indicative mood, e.g., Dixit quod ego fueram saevus).
with case-specific prepositions such as per (through), ad (to/toward), and trans (across);
in exclamations, such as me miseram, "wretched me" (spoken by Circe to Ulysses in Ovid's Remedium Amoris);
to qualify purpose, e.g., ad proficiscendum, "for the purpose of departing"; ad effēminandōs animōs, "for the purpose of weakening [or, effeminating] the spirit".

For the accusative endings, see Latin declensions.

German

The accusative case is used for the direct object in a sentence. The masculine forms for German articles, e.g., "the", "a/an", "my", etc., change in the accusative case: they always end in -en. The feminine, neutral and plural forms do not change.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Definite article (the)	den	die	das	die
Indefinite article (a/an)	einen	eine	ein

For example, Lua error: not enough memory. (dog) is a masculine (Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.) word, so the article changes when used in the accusative case:

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.. (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.

Some German pronouns also change in the accusative case.

The accusative case is also used after particular German prepositions. These include Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., after which the accusative case is always used, and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. which can govern either the accusative or the dative. The latter prepositions take the accusative when motion or action is specified (being done into/onto the space), but take the dative when location is specified (being done in/on that space). These prepositions are also used in conjunction with certain verbs, in which case it is the verb in question which governs whether the accusative or dative should be used.

Adjective endings also change in the accusative case. Another factor that determines the endings of adjectives is whether the adjective is being used after a definite article (the), after an indefinite article (a/an) or without any article before the adjective (many green apples).

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Definite article	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
Indefinite article			Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
No article				Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

In German, the accusative case is also used for some adverbial expressions, mostly temporal ones, as in Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (This evening I'm staying at home), where Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. is marked as accusative, although not a direct object.

Russian

In Russian, accusative is used not only to display the direct object of an action, but also to indicate the destination or goal of motion. It is also used with some prepositions. The prepositions Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. can both take accusative in situations where they are indicating the goal of a motion.

In the masculine, Russian also distinguishes between animate and inanimate nouns with regard to the accusative; only the animates carry a marker in this case.

The PIE accusative case has nearly eroded in Russian, merging with the genitive or the nominative in most declensions. Only singular first-declension nouns (ending in 'Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.', 'Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.', or 'Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.') have a distinct accusative ('Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.', 'Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.', or 'Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.').

Polish

In Polish, the accusative case has two functions: showing the direct object of an action, and showing the goal of motion.

Declination

Inanimate masculine nouns in accusative case are usually written the same as in nominative case, whereas animate masculine nouns receive the ending Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'house'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'pencil'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'cup'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'brother'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'cat'

In addition to animate masculine nouns, some inanimate masculine nouns receive the ending Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. in accusative case, namely:

Brand names:
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
Countable names of foods:
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'tomato'
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'banana'
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'hamburger'
Names of currencies:
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'pound'
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'cent'
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'dollar'
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'yen'
Names of dances:
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'waltz'
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'polonaise'
And several other common words:
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'cigarette'
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'SMS message'
- Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'Discman'

Feminine nouns ending with Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. or Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. receive the ending Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'sister'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'coffee'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'fish'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'saleswoman'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'goddess'

Feminine nouns ending with a consonant are written the same as in nominative case.

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'message'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'future'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'night'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'village'

The noun Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'woman' is irregular and receives the ending Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.:

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

Neuter nouns are written the same in accusative case as they are in nominative case.

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'eye'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'car'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'breakfast'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'name'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'museum'

Usage

The direct object function of the accusative case in Polish is often used with verbs like Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'to have', Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'to eat', Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'to drink', Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'to read' and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'to like'. For example:

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('I am reading a book')
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('I have a brother')
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('I am eating dinner')
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('I am eating a hot dog')
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('I am drinking beer')
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('I like chocolate')

The motion function of the accusative case is used with the prepositions Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..

The construction Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. + accusative is used when referring to motion to:
- Islands and peninsulas:
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Florida')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Mallorca')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Ibiza')
- Geographic regions:
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Silesia')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Pomerania')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Masovia')
- Certain countries:
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Belarus')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Lithuania')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Latvia')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Slovakia')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Ukraine')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('Hungary')
- Several non-geographic nouns such as:
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('cemetary')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('a movie')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('a beer')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('university')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('post office')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('meeting')
  - Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. ('concert')

Finnish

According to the traditional Finnish grammar, the accusative case is used for a total object, while the partitive case is used for a partial object. The accusative is identical to either the nominative case or the genitive case, except for personal pronouns and the personal interrogative pronoun Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1./Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., which have a special accusative form ending in Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1..

The major new Finnish grammar, Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., deviates from the traditional classification to limit the accusative case to the special case of personal pronouns and Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1./Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.. This grammar considers other total objects as being in the nominative or genitive case.

Hungarian

The accusative case is assigned to the direct object in a sentence in Hungarian. The accusative marker is always Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., often preceded by a linking vowel to facilitate pronunciation.

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'lángos'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'fish'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'programme'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'milk'
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. 'stilt'

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

Every personal pronoun has an accusative form.


		English		Hungarian
		Nominative	Accusative	Nominative	Accusative
1st person singular		I	me	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
2nd person singular		you		Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
3rd person singular	Person	he/she	him/her	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
3rd person singular	Object	it		Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
1st person plural		we	us	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
2nd person plural		you		Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
3rd person plural	Person	they	them	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
3rd person plural	Object	those		Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

For the Hungarian 1st and 2nd person singular accusative forms, the pronoun can often be dropped if it is clear from the context who the speaker is referring to.

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

Semitic languages

Accusative case marking existed in Proto-Semitic, Akkadian, and Ugaritic. It is preserved today in many Semitic languages as Modern Standard Arabic, Hebrew and Ge'ez.

Accusative in Akkadian

Nominative: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (a/the man)

Accusative: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (I trust a/the man)

Accusative in Arabic Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

The accusative case is called in Arabic Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.) and it has many other uses in addition to marking the object of a verb.

Accusative in Hebrew

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

In Hebrew, if the object of the sentence is a pronoun (e.g., I, you, s/he) and the transitive verb requires a direct object, the word Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. is combined with the pronoun into an object pronoun. The combined words are:

me: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
you (singular): Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (M); Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (F)
him: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
her: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
we: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
you (plural): Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (M); Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (F)
them: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (M); Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (F)

Japanese

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. In Japanese, cases are marked by placing particles after nouns. The accusative case is marked with Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. (Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., pronounced Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.).

Korean

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. In Korean, the accusative case is marked with Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. or Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.. The postpositions depend on a word's last syllable. For example: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

Turkish

In Turkish, cases are marked with suffixes. The accusative case is marked with the suffixes Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1., depending on vowel harmony. If a word ends in a vowel, Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. is added before the suffix as a buffer consonant.

The accusative is only used if the direct object of a sentence is definite. If it is indefinite, the nominative case is used. For example:

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	'car'	(nominative case)
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	'I saw a car.'	(nominative case, indefinite direct object)
Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.	'I saw the car.'	(accusative case, definite direct object)

Malayalam

In Malayalam, the accusative inflection is achieved using the suffix Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. /-e/. Example: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. /raman/ → Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. /ramane/. The sandhi also play a role here depending on the ending of the noun. Example: Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. /maram/ → Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1. /maratte/ where /tt/ replaces /m/ when /e/ is suffixed.

References

^ Huddleston, Rodney. Pullum, Geoffrey. A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge University Press. 2015. P. 106. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.
^ Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

External links

Error creating thumbnail: The dictionary definition of accusative case at Wiktionary

Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

[1] Huddleston, Rodney. Pullum, Geoffrey. A Student's Introduction to English Grammar. Cambridge University Press. 2015. P. 106. Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

[2] Lua error: Internal error: The interpreter exited with status 1.

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Accusative case

Contents

Example

Latin

German

Russian

Polish

Declination

Usage

Finnish

Hungarian

Semitic languages

Japanese

Korean

Turkish

Malayalam

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Navigation menu

Accusative case

Example

Latin

German

Russian

Polish

Declination

Usage

Finnish

Hungarian

Semitic languages

Japanese

Korean

Turkish

Malayalam

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Navigation menu

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