Akkuszativ

Akkuszativ, or accusative, is a grammatical case used to mark the direct object of transitive verbs and certain other syntactic roles. In languages with case systems, the accusative is typically contrasted with the nominative (subject) and the dative (indirect object or other functions). The exact form and usage of the accusative vary between languages.

In German, the Akkusativ marks the direct object. The definite article changes for singular nouns as follows: masculine den, feminine die, neuter das; plural die. The indefinite article is einen for masculine, eine for feminine, ein for neuter. Personal pronouns include mich, dich, ihn, sie, es, uns, euch, sie, Sie. Several prepositions govern the accusative, notably durch, für, gegen, ohne, um. With verbs of motion, prepositions such as in or auf often switch to the accusative to indicate direction (e.g., ich gehe in den Raum). Adjective endings preceding the noun also reflect the accusative through declension patterns.

Beyond German, the term refers to similar direct-object marking in many languages. In Latin, the accusative marks direct objects and appears with certain prepositions to express direction or time. In Russian and other Slavic languages, the accusative can vary by gender, number, and animacy and interacts with prepositions to convey movement, location, or duration. Some languages have reduced or flat case systems, or rely on word order and prepositions rather than a dedicated accusative form.

In language learning, recognizing the accusative helps identify the object of a verb and understand how sentence structure shifts when objects are involved.