Handout: Accusative Pronouns

Handout: Accusative Pronouns
You have already learned the accusative case with definite and indefinite articles (den, einen). You have also learned personal pronouns in the nominative case (ich, du, er, etc). Now it’s time to learn the same pronouns in the accusative case. They are:

Learning aid: the pronouns for ‘me’ (mich) and ‘us’ (uns) are very much like English, so they shouldn’t be a problem. The pronouns for ‘him’, ‘her’, ‘it’ and ‘them’ follow the same pattern as the articles: der (er) becomes den (ihn); die (sie) stays die (sie), and das (es) stays das (es). That leaves the plural you form (ihr - euch), which you’ll just need to memorize!
When to use the accusative case, as a reminder: direct objects in a sentence must be in the accusative case.

Note: please do not confuse these pronouns with the possessive adjectives (his, her, my, your) that we learned a few days ago. Those words (mein, dein, sein) are just like the article ein: (m)eine Mutter. The accusative pronouns, however, stand alone as a substitute for a noun, just like in English: I see them = Ich sehe sie.

A. Decide whether the underlined pronoun is in the nominative or accusative case.

B. Restate the sentences using a pronoun instead of the underlined noun. Write the correct pronoun in the blank.

C. Provide the pronouns for the underlined nouns in the answering statement.

D. Supply the proper personal pronoun in German for those in parentheses.