Accusative case

#0040. Singular nouns

1. Nouns that end in the letter -a in the nominative case, have the ending -у in the accusative. Nouns of this type include all feminine and masculine nouns that end in the letter -a, such as газета, мама, папа, Атланта.

   nominative	accusative
   книга	Нина читает книгу.
   Анна	Сергей видит Анну.
   папа	Сын слушает папу.
   Атланта	Туристы любят Атланту.

2. Unlike in English, changing the word order in sentences like these will not change the meaning. In a sentence like "Анну видит Сергей.", we know who sees whom (which is the direct object) by the ending of the noun. We know that Анну will be the direct object because it has an accusative ending.

3. Nouns that end in the letter -я in the nominative case, have the ending -ю in the accusative. These include all feminine and masculine nouns that end in the letter -я, such as Аня, дядя, Франция.

   nominative	accusative
   Аня	Виктор любит Аню.
   дядя	Тётя любит дядю.
   Франция	Соседи едут во Францию.

4. Feminine nouns that end in soft sign, neuter and masculine inanimate nouns, and all plural inanimate nouns, don't have endings in the accusative case. Their accusative case form is the same as the nominative.

   nominative	accusative
   письмо	Вадим читает письмо.
   мать	В магазине мы видели его мать.
   газеты	В парке они читают газеты.
   журнал	Какой журнал она читает?

Animate nouns

1. Animate nouns refer to living beings (people and animals). Inanimate nouns refer to non-living beings.

2. Masculine and neuter animate nouns have the ending -a if the stem is hard, and -я if it's soft.

   nominative		accusative
   hard	Вадим	Надя любит Вадима.
   	профессор	Студент не понимат професора.
   soft	Николай	Вы знаете Николая
   	Игорь	Где вы видели Игоря?

3. All animate plural nouns will have the same endings in the accusative case as in the genitive.