Please explain what a nominative and akkusativ means when learning German?

Question

I am in a class, and the teacher only speaks Deutsch-help!

Answer 1

NOMINATIVE
The subject of the verb

ACCUSATIVE
The direct object of the verb or the case taken by certain prepositions

The fact that German inflects its words to accommodate these two different grammatical cases means that German can be more flexible in its word order than English can be.
For example, the nominative form of the English pronoun 'you' is in German 'du', whilst in the accusative case it is 'dich'. Thus the English phrase 'I love you' can be translated as both

Ich liebe dich

AND

Dich liebe ich

This is especially useful for emphasising the direct object of a verb, for it is placed at the front of the sentence.

Answer 2

German knows four distinct cases
Nominativ
Genitiv
Dativ
Akkusativ

Nominativ (1st case) is used for the subject of a sentence, it is the form which you will find in the dictionary
e.g. der Hund, die Katze, das Schwein - the dog, the cat, the pig (in English also the expression subjective is found)

Genitiv is also known in English: des Hundes - the dog's (also called possesive case)

Dativ is used to indicate the indirect object of a German sentence.

Akkusativ is used to indicate the direct object.

Here a sentence with all 4 cases:
Die Sekretärin des Schriftstellers sandte das Buch dem Verleger.
The writer's secretary sent the book to the publisher.

Die Sekretärin (nom., subject) des Schriftstellers (gen.)sandte (verb, predicat) das Buch (akk., direct obj.) dem Verleger (dat., indirect object).

Below two links explaining Dativ and Akkusativ (in English)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accusative_case#The_accusative_case_in_German
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dative_case#The_dative_case_in_German

Answer 3

YAY another fellow german-learner(:

the way I see it is that
the accusative form does not have a direct object,
therefore it changes the personal pronouns.
ich - mich wir - uns
du - dich ihr - euch
er/sie/es - sich Sie/sie sich
This would be used with verbs that have the "sich" in front of it..
like sich fuehlen or sich verstauchen.
for example; it would be like ich fuehle mich nicht wohl.
or er hat sich den Fuss verstauchen.

The dative form has a direct object therefore having different
pronouns.

Answer 4

hi there! no mind i also looked in trouble when i passed for this.

The nominative form is referring to the subject of a sentence.

ex:
the apple- der Apfel ( nominative)
the house- das haus (nominative)
...

this is the easiest one, the second one ( akkusativ) is pretty difficult than the above, but not that difficult.

the akkusativ is referring to the direct object in a sentence, in english the direct object can be identified by replacing it with the pronoun (him, her, it)

ex:
I want the apple ( i want IT)
I love the girl ( i love HER)
I like the boy ( i like HIM)

Ich möchte DEN Apfel ( der-den)
( we have changed the nominative male article der, for the akkusativ male article DEN)

Ich liebe DAS Madchen (das= nominativ and akkusativ neutrum gender article)

Ich mag DEN Junge ( We changed again the nominativ der, for the akkusativ den)

so the nominativ and akkusativ articles are:

NOMINATIV
Der,die,das,die(male,female,neutrum, plural)

AKUSATIV
Den,die,das,die(male,female,neutrum,plural)


hope you understood!

Answer 5

Nominative: this is the guy who makes the action Akkusative: the guy who promptly gets it Now, attempt to be very careful, because of the fact lots of the persons have a similar difficulty as you, yet they can't distinguish between dative (the only who circuitously gets the action), and akkusative. as an occasion: I see Maria/the moon (as a result "I" is nominative, because of the fact this is the guy who makes the action, and "Maria/the moon" is the guy who gets promptly), as a fashion to locate the direct merchandise (Akkusative) in a sentence, you may desire to ask your self: Who/What do you notice? I see MARIA, or THE MOON. as a fashion to locate the difficulty (Nominative) you may desire to ask your self: Who sees? Now in German: Ich sehe Maria/den Mond, because of the fact that "Mond" gets the action, yet "der Mond scheint". replace into scheint? Rta: Der Mond Wen siehst ich?: Ich sehe MARIA/DEN MOND. the only form that changes, is the masculine one, as a result "der Mond", while you're employing any adjective with it, you may desire to upload a -en to the stem of the word ex. Ich sehe den weißen Mond. Maria trägst ein schwarzes T-shirt. Du isst eine rote Erdbere. Oh my God... sorry I mixed the languages back.

Answer 6

Nominative is the subject. Accusative is the direct object.
E.g. I love you - "I" must be nominative, "you" must be accusative.
He reads a book - "He" must be nominative, "a book" must be accusative.
They climbed the mountain - "They" must be nominative, "the mountain" must be accusative.
Got it?