Accusative Case – Declension of Pronouns in German Grammar

Introduction

The accusative case, also the accusative object or direct object, follows certain verbs and prepositions. It is used for the thing or person receiving the direct action of a verb. Because word order is freer in German grammar, we use the accusative case to mark the direct object in a sentence by using different personal pronouns and changing the ending of masculine possessive pronouns. We can use the questions wen/was to find out whom/what is recieving the action of the verb.

Learn the declension of German pronouns in the accusative case online with Lingolia then practise pronoun declension in the exercises.

Example

Karin sucht ihren Hut. Ohne ihn will sie nicht aus dem Haus gehen.

Sie hat nur den Hut ihres Vaters gefunden, nicht ihren. Jemand muss ihn ihr weggenommen haben.

Usage

We use pronouns in the accustive case:

after certain verbs (accusative object), e. g. suchen, finden, …
Example:
Karin sucht ihren Hut.Karin is looking for her hat.
Sie hat nur den Hut ihres Vaters gefunden, nicht ihren.She has only found her father’s hat, not hers.
after certain prepositions e.g. durch, für, gegen, ohne, um
Example:
Ohne ihn will sie nicht aus dem Haus gehen.She doesn’t want to leave the house without it.
as the direct object in sentences with more than one object
Example:
Jemand muss ihn ihr weggenommen haben.Someone must have taken it from her.

To Note

If a pronoun is the direct object, then it is placed before the indirect object in a sentence.

Examples:: Jemand muss Karin den Hut weggenommen haben.Someone must have taken the hat from Karin.; Jemand muss ihr den Hut weggenommen haben.Someone must have taken the hat from her.; Jemand muss ihn Karin weggenommen haben.Someone must have taken it from Karin.; Jemand muss ihn ihr weggenommen haben.Someone must have taken it from her.

Declension Table: German Pronouns in Accusative

The table provides an overview of personl and possessive pronouns in the accusative case.

	personal pronoun	dependent/independent possessive pronoun
		masculine	neuter		feminine + plural
		masculine	adjective	pronoun	feminine + plural
1^st person singular	mich	meinen	mein	meins	meine
2^nd person singular	dich	deinen	dein	deins	deine
3^rd person singular (m)	ihn	seinen	sein	seins	seine
3^rd person singular (f)	sie	ihren	ihr	ihr(e)s	ihre
3^rd person singular (n)	es	seinen	sein	seins	seine
1^st person plural	uns	unseren	unser	unsers	unsere
2^nd person plural	euch	euren	euer	eures	eure
3^rd person plural	sie	ihren	ihr	ihr(e)s	ihre

To note

Only the masculine possessive pronouns differ from the nominative.