Accusative Case
ద్వితీయా విభక్తి
The accusative case marks the direct object of a sentence — the thing an action is done to. German shows this by changing the article; Telugu shows it by adding a suffix to the noun itself, though Telugu is pickier than German about exactly when that suffix is required.
Grammar Comparison
వ్యాకరణ పోలిక
den vs. -ని
Ich sehe den Mann. (der → den — the masculine article changes)
నేను మనిషిని చూస్తున్నాను. (మనిషి → మనిషిని — the noun itself takes -ని)
Telugu marks a direct object by adding the suffix -ని (or -ను) straight onto the noun: మనిషి ('the man', subject form) becomes మనిషిని ('the man', object form). German does a similar 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, while Telugu marks it fairly reliably on human and animate objects.
Telugu only marks the object clearly when it's a person
der → den (masculine only); die, das, and plural die stay the same
మనుషులు/జీవులు లాంటి పదాలకు -ని తప్పనిసరి; నిర్జీవ వస్తువులకు తరచుగా లేకుండానే ఉంటుంది
Here Telugu and German diverge from Tamil in similar ways, but for different reasons. German limits its visible change to masculine nouns only. Telugu, meanwhile, tends to mark -ని clearly on human and animate direct objects (మనిషిని, కుక్కని) but often leaves inanimate objects unmarked in plain speech (ఆపిల్ తిన్నాను, 'I ate the/an apple', with no suffix needed) — a real point where Telugu's accusative marking is more selective than the near-universal suffix some other Dravidian languages use on every object regardless of animacy.
Vocabulary
పదజాలం
- Telugu
- మనిషినిmanishini
- English
- the man (as object)
- Telugu
- స్త్రీనిstreeni
- English
- the woman (as object)
- Telugu
- బిడ్డనిbiddani
- English
- the child (as object)
- Telugu
- ఒక కుక్కనిoka kukkani
- English
- a dog (as object)
- Telugu
- ఆపిల్నిaapilni
- English
- the apple (as object)
- Telugu
- కాఫీనిkaafeeni
- English
- the coffee (as object)