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Lesson 9A1

Accusative Case

இரண்டாம் வேற்றுமை (செயப்படுபொருள்)

The accusative case marks the direct object of a sentence — the thing an action is done to. German shows this by changing the article; Tamil shows it by changing the noun itself.

Grammar Comparison

இலக்கண ஒப்பீடு

den vs. -ஐ

German

Ich sehe den Mann. (der → den — the masculine article changes)

Tamil

நான் மனிதனை பார்க்கிறேன். (மனிதன் → மனிதனை — the noun itself takes -ஐ)

Tamil marks a direct object by adding the accusative suffix -ஐ straight onto the noun: மனிதன் ('the man', subject form) becomes மனிதனை ('the man', object form). German does the identical job — flagging 'this noun is being acted upon' — but only the masculine article changes shape (der → den); feminine die, neuter das, and all plurals die stay exactly the same in the accusative. So the accusative is only visible about a quarter of the time in German, versus almost always in Tamil.

Only 'der' words change — memorize just one row

German

der → den (masculine only); die, das, and plural die stay the same

Tamil

பாலினம் எதுவாக இருந்தாலும் எப்போதும் -ஐ சேர்க்கப்படும்

Because Tamil adds -ஐ to every noun turned into an object, regardless of its class, it's tempting to expect German to mark every object too. It doesn't: die and das don't change at all between nominative and accusative. In practice, the entire accusative case comes down to memorizing one transformation — der becomes den when the masculine noun is the object — and recognizing that everything else looks identical to the subject form.

Vocabulary

சொற்கள்

GermanPronunciationTamilEnglish
den Manndayn mahnமனிதனைmanithaṉaithe man (as object)
die Fraudee frowபெண்ணைpeṇṇaithe woman (as object)
das Kinddahs kintகுழந்தையைkuḻandhaiyaithe child (as object)
einen HundEYE-nen hoontஒரு நாயைoru nāyaia dog (as object)
den Apfeldayn AHP-felஆப்பிளைāppiḷaithe apple (as object)
den Kaffeedayn KAH-fayகாபியைkāpiyaithe coffee (as object)