Introduction to German Nominative and Accusative

The text about the Hotel Adlon contained a number of nouns. All German nouns have grammatical gender. They are masculine, feminine or neuter. The article for each gender is different. The German for ‘the’ can be der, die or das. And the German for ‘a/an’ can be either ein, for masculine and neuter or eine, for feminine nouns.

masculine	der Konferenzraum	ein Konferenzraum
feminine	die Cafeteria	eine Cafeteria
neuter	das Fitnessstudio	ein Fitnessstudio
all nouns in the plural	die Büros

The articles above are used for nouns on their own, or when they are the subject of the sentence. This is called the nominative case. If a noun is the direct object in a sentence (that is, it is on the receiving end of the action), you use the accusative case. In the accusative case the masculine article is different.

Here are some examples.

subject (nominative)	verb	direct object (accusative)
Das Hotel Post	hat	einen Swimmingpool (m.)
Ich	suche	den Swimmingpool
Das Hotel Post	hat	eine Bar (f.)
Ich	suche	die Bar.
Das Hotel Post	hat	ein Restaurant (nt.)
Ich	suche	das Restaurant

Here is a summary of the indefinite articles in the nominative and the accusative.

indefinite article	masculine	feminine	neuter
nominative	ein	eine	ein
accusative	einen	eine	ein

Here are the definite articles.

definite article	masculine	feminine	neuter	plural
nominative	der	die	das	die
accusative	den	die	das	die

  Because of these changes affected by different cases in German, it is important to learn the gender of German nouns. You also use the accusative with the phrase Ich möchte or Ich hätte gern, for example when ordering food or drink or asking for an item in a shop. Again, it is important that you remember the gender of the noun: for example, der Kaffee, die Torte, das Stück (a piece).