Nominative/Accusative

You already know that each German noun is either masculine, feminine, neuter or plural. Therefore, instead of just one article ‘the’, we need four different articles in German:

der (masc.), die (fem.), das (neut.), die (plur.)

Similarly, instead of the article ‘a/an’, we also need four articles. The plural form of ‘a/an’ doesn’t exist in English or in German because it would mean something like ‘a students’ and would make little sense. However, a negative form of it exists (‘no’ students showed up) and we are going to use it instead.

ein (masc.), eine (fem.), ein (neut.), keine (plur).

• ‘der/ein Tisch’ is masculine and, therefore, a ‘he’, e.g.  Er ist schwer. = He is heavy.
• ‘die/eine Uhr’ is feminine and, therefore, a ‘she’, e.g. Sie ist teuer. = She is expensive.
• ‘das/ein Fenster’ is neuter and, therefore, an ‘it’ (finally!), e.g. Es ist offen. = It is open.
• ‘die/keine Studenten’ is plural and, therefore ‘they’, e.g. Sie sind klug. = They are smart.

You probably also remember that each word gets ‘a job’ or a ‘role’ it plays in a sentence. This role is usually shown in the article. This way it is easier for us to figure out who does what to whom in a sentence.

The articles presented above are used for the ‘default’ role of being ‘named as an actor’. Linguistically, it is called the ‘subject’. Subjects are in ‘the nominative case’ (because they are being named):

E.g.  Das Wetter ist schön.        Ein Mann kommt rein.        Die Sonne scheint.      Die Tage sind warm.

Another important role nouns can have is to be the ‘affected’ or the ‘accused’ ones. Linguistically, this role is called the ‘direct object’.  Direct objects are in the ‘ Accusative case’ (because they are being ‘accused/affected‘). To show that a word is being affected, the masculine article ‘der’ changes to ‘den’ and ‘ein’ changed to ‘einen’. All the other articles (feminine, neuter, and plural) stay the same.

• Der Hund sieht kuschelig aus. Die Kinder streicheln den Hund.
• The dog looks cuddly. The kids pet the dog.
• Die Katze sieht kuschelig aus. Die Kinder streicheln die Katze.
• the cat looks cuddly. The kids pet the cat.

While ‘the’ doesn’t change in English, the German ‘der Hund’ means that the dog is named as an actor and ‘den Hund’ means that something is done to it. With feminine, neuter and plural articles, you don’t see it.

Thus, we can expand the chart above to the following:

Please note that ‘sein’ (to be), ‘werden’ (to become), ‘bleiben’ (to remain) and their forms do not count as an action because they are not affecting the noun, e.g.

• Das ist ein Professor. 
• Er wird ein Professor.
• Er bleibt ein Professor.

Aufgabe 1. Determine if the element in quotation marks is the ‘doer’ (Nominative) or the “affected one” (Akkusativ).

1. Das ist ‘ein BMW’.
2. Ich will ‘einen BMW’.
3. Ich habe ‘einen Fisch’.
4. Er liebt ‘meinen Fisch.’
5. ‘Mein Fisch’ kostet viel Geld.
6. Ich bringe ‘meinen Fisch’ zu Brad Pits Party mit.
7. Ein Fisch bleibt ‘ein Fisch’.
8. Siehst du ‘den Fisch’?
9. ‘Der Fisch’ ist toll!
10. Es gibt ‘einen Fisch’

Aufgabe 2. Enter the correct ending. If you see D_____, you need to type in ‘er’ or ‘en’ only.

1. D_____ Terminator sieht d_____ Fisch von Sarah Connor.
2. D_____ Fisch ist froh.
3. Sara sieht d_____ Terminator nicht.
4. Terminator läuft zu Sarah, nimmt d_____ Fisch und wirft d_____ Fisch auf den Fußboden.
5. D_____ Fisch landet auf dem Fußboden.
6. Sarah weint, aber d_____ Terminator lacht.
7. Christy läuft zum Terminator, nimmt ihn und wirft d_____ Terminator in die Mülltonne.