Accusative is the fourth case (you can find more about cases here). The main function of accusative is to indicate a direct object in the sentence. Direct object, in simple terms, is a person or a thing that "receives" the action of the verb.
Examples of verbs used with accusative: jíst (eat), pít (drink), mít (to have), mít rád/a (to like), hledat (to look for).
Example sentences:
nominativeaccusative
To je česneková polévka. (This is garlic soup.) x Jím česnekovou polévku. (I am eating garlic soup).
I eat which makes me the subject of the sentence,
soup is eaten by me (the action of eating is
"done to the soup" which makes the soup object of the
sentence).
To je neperlivá voda. (This is still water.) x Piju neperlivou vodu. (I am drinking still water).
To je moje sestra. (This is my sister). x Mám sestru. (I have a sister).
How do we form accusative?
Once we have a word we need to put into the accusative, we do so based on the gender of the noun. We will only cover adjectives (soft and hard) and nouns (with typical endings) here.
Masculine animate
The basic changes are shown in the table below. First column shows nominative form, second column shows accusative form, third column shows the rule for forming accusative.
Masculine inanimate
No change in endings.
Example:
nominative: To je smažený řízek.
accusative: Dám si smažený řízek.
Feminine
The basic changes are shown in the table below. All feminine nouns ending in consonant (e.g. kancelář, tramvaj remain the same without ending changes).
