DIRECT OBJECT

Today we're going to learn one of the most important Russian cases: the ACCUSSATIVE CASE – ВИНИ́ТЕЛЬНЫЙ ПАДЕ́Ж!

What does the accusative case do? Its main job is to identify the direct object of an action. In other words, it tells us who or what is receiving the action.

For example:

What am I reading? (Что ты чита́ешь?) – А book. (Книгу.)

The nominative (or dictionary) form of the word "book" is кни́га. The ending change from А to У is an indication of declension of the noun.

What does she love? (Что она́ лю́бит?) – Music. (Му́зыку.)

QUESTION WORDS

The questions we use to identify the direct object are:

Кого́? – whom? (who?)
Что? – what?

So:

You might be wondering: why can't we just say: "Я люблю́ Мари́я". Why does Мари́я have to change? Well, Russian has relatively flexible word order.

In English, word order usually tells us who is doing the action and who is receiving it.

For example, "The dog loves the cat". The dog does the action, and the cat receives it. Right? What if we switch the order, "The cat loves the dog"? The meaning changes completely! Now the cat does the action and the dog is the receiver of it.

Russian can move words around much more freely. "Соба́ка лю́бит ко́шку." - The dog loves the cat. And if we change the order? "Ко́шку лю́бит соба́ка" - The dog loves the cat. The meaning does NOT change.

Why? Because соба́ка is the subject and stays in the nominative case, while ко́шка is the direct object and changes to the accusative case:

ко́шкА → ко́шкУ

The ending often tells us what role the noun plays in the sentence. So even when the word order changes, we can still understand who is doing what to whom.

Choose the correct pronoun

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1. —КтоКогоЧто этот челове́к?

2. —КтоКогоЧто ты тут зна́ешь?

3. —КтоКогоЧто вы де́лаете?

4. —КтоКогоЧто зна́ет матема́тику?

5. —КтоКогоЧто они́ изуча́ют?

6. —КтоКогоЧто ты по́мнишь?

Reveal answersReset

In the next lesson, we'll learn exactly how nouns change when they go into the accusative case. See you there!

One case, two questions and a word order that suddenly makes sense. Let’s check they’ve stuck!

Sort each form into its case

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па́стукни́гуматема́тикуму́зыкуМари́ючелове́ксоба́каМари́яко́шкукни́га

• NominativeNothing here yet.
• AccusativeNothing here yet.

Reset

Multiple choice

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1. 1.What is the main job of the accusative case?

   AIt names the person or thing doing the action.BIt identifies the direct object, the one receiving the action.CIt makes the noun plural.

2. 2.Which two questions do we use to find the direct object?

   AКого́? and Что?BКто? and Что?CКто? and Кого́?

3. 3.Я чита́ю кни́гу. Why is it кни́гу and not кни́га?

   AКни́гу is the plural of кни́га.BBoth are correct, because the ending makes no difference.CКни́га is the dictionary form, and as the direct object its ending changes.

4. 4.Ко́шку лю́бит соба́ка. Who loves whom?

   AThe dog loves the cat.BThe cat loves the dog.CEither one, because Russian word order is free.

5. 5.Я люблю́ Мари́ю. Which question does Мари́ю answer?

   AЧто?BКто?CКого́?

Reset

That’s Урок 1 finished 🎉 You know what the accusative case is for. Next comes how to build it.