What is the Accusative case in the Russian language?

Hello, my dear Russian learner! 

Cases are one of the most complicated rules in the Russian language, so let’s figure them out together! 

We’ve already published a short explanation about what cases are and how many there are in the Russian language. You can read it here.

Let's briefly remind you that a case is a grammatical category that determines the role of several parts of speech in a sentence, expresses the connection between them and conveys the meaning of what is being said. It's what word order often does in other languages.

The case system applies to nouns, pronouns, as well as the adjectives, numerals and participles that depend on them. They are declined by case, which means the ending of the word changes.

In total, there are six cases in the Russian language. Read about:

• the Nominative case here,
• the Genitive case here,
• the Dative case here.

And now let’s talk about the Accusative case. 

What does the Accusative case mean and indicate?

The Accusative case is one of the most complex cases and denotes a great variety of concepts and actions:

• The object of an action: “видеть дома” (“to see houses”), “слушать музыку” “(to listen to the music”), “рисовать картину” (“to draw a picture”), “я люблю тебя” (“I love you”). 
• The result of an action: “связать варежки” (“to knit mittens”).
• Certain categories of space and time also agree with the accusative case: “не спал всю ночь” (“didn't sleep the whole night”), “прошел целый километр” (“walked a whole kilometer”).

One of the main difficulties of the Accusative case is that animate and inanimate nouns are declined differently. Inanimate nouns take the form of the Nominative case, while the declension of animate nouns coincides with their declension in the Genitive case.

Words in the Accusative case answer the questions "кого? что?" (“whom? what?”) for nouns, "какого? какой? какие?" (“what kind of?”) for adjectives and participles with animate nouns, "какую? какое? какие?" (“what kind of?”) for inanimate nouns, "скольких?" (“how many?”) for animate nouns, and "сколько?" (“how many?”) for inanimate nouns.

Below are examples of how animate nouns of the three declension types look in the Accusative case:

Below are examples of how inanimate nouns of the three declension types look in the Accusative case:

If you want to learn more about the cases and Russian grammar, make sure you sign up to our free Russian language course!