Thread: Nominative and Accusative

Hi everybody! I know the nominative is used for the subject of a sentence and accusative is used for the direct object of a sentence, but I don´t know when use nominative and when use accusative. For example, Мы видим море (we see the sea), is accusative sentence, but it could be a nominative if I used for the subject and not for the object. I mean nouns in the nominative answer such questions as What? and Who?, if I make a question: WHO see the sea? We see the sea, it´s nominative. The nouns in the accusative answer such questions as Whom? and What?, if I make a question: WHAT do we see? We see the sea´, it´s accusative.

Each case is applied to separate nouns, pronouns or groups such as an adjective with a noun, NOT TO THE WHOLE SENTENCE!!! Shall I say it again?

It doesn't make sense to say that a sentence is "an accusative sentence" or "a nominative sentence". It's only the nouns within a sentence that can be in the nominative or accusative.

We see the sea
Мы видим море
Subject verb object

Subject = nominative case
Direct object = accusative case

Originally Posted by Demonic_Duck

It doesn't make sense to say that a sentence is "an accusative sentence" or "a nominative sentence". It's only the nouns within a sentence that can be in the nominative or accusative.

We see the sea
Мы видим море
Subject verb object

Subject = nominative case
Direct object = accusative case

What about something like "We see a nice car"?

Thanks a lot guys! Now I got it)

Originally Posted by Eric C.

What about something like "We see a nice car"?

We see a nice car

Originally Posted by Eric C.

What about something like "We see a nice car"?

In this case, nice car is the object. So, nice car is in accusative. Am I right?

Originally Posted by renataf

In this case, nice car is the object. So, nice car is in accusative. Am I right?

Absolutely. I was just trying to say that not only the nouns within a sentence can be in a certain case.

Yes, that's correct. Because the adjective "nice" modifies the noun "car", it would also be in the accusative case.

Of course, in English, we don't really have cases as such (in the sentence "the car overtakes another car", the first car is the subject and the second the direct object, yet the word remains exactly the same).

However, in Russian, you can see that the noun and adjective is modified:
We see a nice car
Мы видим хорошую машину

Because «хороший» modifies the noun «машину» (accusative case of «машина»), it changes to "agree" with the noun.

Similarly other modifiers change to agree with the noun they modify:
Моя машина очень дорога,
but
Я люблю мою машину

Also, as Russian does not use articles, you don't need to worry about these agreeing with the noun, but in languages that have both articles and cases (such as Greek), the article also agrees with the noun it modifies.

Originally Posted by Demonic_Duck

Я люблю свою машину

Also, as Russian does not use articles, you don't need to worry about these agreeing with the noun, but in languages that have both articles and cases (such as Greek), the article also agrees with the noun it modifies.

The subject coincides with the possessor

I believe «мою» is also permissible here, although perhaps «свою» is preferable. In any case, I used «мою» in order to contrast it with the nominative form.

Originally Posted by Demonic_Duck

I believe «мою» is also permissible here, although perhaps «свою» is preferable.

Yes, you are right. There can be more difference if one adds some context.