Accusative Case

In a nutshell

Accusative marks the direct object — the thing directly receiving the action of the verb.
Masculine/neuter inanimate nouns don't change at all in the accusative. Masculine animate nouns (people, animals) borrow the genitive ending.
Feminine -а → -у, -я → -ю. Neuter never changes.
Accusative also answers "куда?" (to where?) with в/на, and shows up in set time expressions like «ка́ждый день».

Accusative is the first case to learn because it's the most common one you'll produce yourself: almost every sentence with a verb and an object needs it.

What accusative is for

Compare:

Кни́га на столе́. — lit. "Book-NOM on table." — "The book is on the table." (кни́га is the subject — nominative)

Я чита́ю кни́гу. — lit. "I read book-ACC." — "I'm reading a book." (кни́гу is the object — accusative)

The noun changed from «кни́га» to «кни́гу» because its job in the sentence changed — from doer to thing acted upon. That's the entire point of accusative.

Masculine and neuter: mostly unchanged

For inanimate masculine and all neuter nouns, the accusative form is identical to the nominative (dictionary) form. Nothing to learn here beyond "don't change it."

Я чита́ю журна́л. — lit. "I read magazine-ACC." — "I'm reading a magazine." (журна́л unchanged)

Я вижу окно́. — lit. "I see window-ACC." — "I see a window." (окно́ unchanged)

Masculine animate: borrows genitive

If a masculine noun refers to a living being (person or animal), the accusative form is not the same as nominative — it borrows the genitive ending instead (genitive is covered fully in Genitive, but you need this piece now).

Nominative	Accusative (animate)	Meaning
студе́нт →	студе́нта	student
друг →	дру́га	friend
кот →	кота́	cat
Ива́н →	Ива́на	Ivan

Я ви́жу студе́нта. — lit. "I see student-ACC." — "I see a/the student." (compare: Я ви́жу журна́л, where the inanimate object doesn't change)

Я люблю́ моего́ дру́га. — lit. "I love my-ACC friend-ACC." — "I love my friend."

This "animate = genitive-like" rule also applies in the plural, for all genders — covered in the plural section below.

Feminine: -а → -у, -я → -ю

Feminine nouns change their final vowel, whether animate or not.

Nominative	Accusative	Meaning
кни́га →	кни́гу	book
маши́на →	маши́ну	car
сестра́ →	сестру́	sister
неде́ля →	неде́лю	week
Мари́я →	Мари́ю	Maria

Я ви́жу сестру́. — lit. "I see sister-ACC." — "I see my sister."

Feminine -ь nouns don't change in the accusative singular — they stay identical to nominative, same as masculine inanimate and neuter:

Я люблю́ ночь. — lit. "I love night-ACC." — "I love the night." (ночь unchanged)

Neuter: never changes

Neuter nouns are identical in nominative and accusative, always — animacy doesn't affect neuter the way it affects masculine.

Я ви́жу живо́тное. — lit. "I see animal-ACC." — "I see an animal." (живо́тное, "animal," unchanged even though it's a living being — grammatical gender rules override real-world animacy here)

Summary table

Gender	Nominative	Accusative	Rule
Masc. inanimate	журна́л	журна́л	no change
Masc. animate	студе́нт	студе́нта	takes genitive-like -а/-я
Fem. -а	кни́га	кни́гу	-а → -у
Fem. -я	неде́ля	неде́лю	-я → -ю
Fem. -ь	ночь	ночь	no change
Neuter	окно́	окно́	no change (always)

Plural accusative

In the plural, the animacy rule applies across all genders, not just masculine:

Inanimate plural → accusative = nominative plural (no change)
Animate plural → accusative = genitive plural (covered in Genitive)

Я чита́ю кни́ги. — lit. "I read books-ACC." — "I'm reading books." (inanimate plural, unchanged from nominative «кни́ги»)

Я ви́жу студе́нтов. — lit. "I see students-ACC." — "I see students." (animate plural, borrows genitive plural «студе́нтов»)

You'll drill plural genitive forms properly in Lesson 4 — for now, just recognize why an animate plural object looks different from its dictionary form.

Accusative for direction: "куда?"

Accusative isn't only for direct objects — it also answers куда? ("to where?"), used with the prepositions в (into) and на (onto), when there's motion toward a place.

Я иду́ в магази́н. — lit. "I go into store-ACC." — "I'm going to the store."

Я иду́ на рабо́ту. — lit. "I go onto work-ACC." — "I'm going to work."

This is different from где? ("where — location"), which uses the same prepositions в/на but with the prepositional case instead — covered in Prepositional. Keep the pair in mind: в/на + accusative = motion toward; в/на + prepositional = static location.

Compare:

Я в магази́не. — lit. "I in store-PREP." — "I'm in the store." (location — prepositional)

Я иду́ в магази́н. — lit. "I go into store-ACC." — "I'm going to the store." (direction — accusative)

Accusative in time expressions

Certain time expressions use accusative without needing you to think about direct objects at all — they're just fixed patterns worth memorizing:

Я рабо́таю в сре́ду. — lit. "I work on Wednesday-ACC." — "I work on Wednesday." (days of the week after «в» use accusative)

Я чита́ю ка́ждый день. — lit. "I read every-ACC day-ACC." — "I read every day." (duration/frequency expressions like «ка́ждый день,» «всю неде́лю» take accusative with no preposition at all)

Practice

Put «журна́л» (magazine) into the accusative for: Я чита́ю ___.
Put «сестра́» (sister) into the accusative for: Я ви́жу ___.
Put «брат» (brother — animate!) into the accusative for: Я люблю́ ___.
Put «окно́» (window) into the accusative for: Я мо́ю ___. (I'm washing...)
Put «неде́ля» (week) into the accusative for: Я рабо́тал всю ___. (I worked all...)
Translate: "I see a cat." (кот — animate masc.)
Translate: "I'm going to school (шко́ла)." — use the "motion toward" construction.
Translate: "The book is on the table." — use the "location" construction (careful: this is NOT accusative — which case is it?)
Fill in: Я рабо́таю в _____ (пя́тница — Friday).
Explain in one sentence why «студе́нта» has an -а ending but «журна́л» doesn't, even though both are masculine.

Answers

Я чита́ю журна́л. — unchanged; masc. inanimate nouns don't change in accusative.
Я ви́жу сестру́. — fem. -а → -у.
Я люблю́ бра́та. — masc. animate takes the genitive-like -а ending, not the unchanged nominative.
Я мо́ю окно́. — unchanged; neuter nouns never change in accusative.
Я рабо́тал всю неде́лю. — fem. -я → -ю; also note «весь» agrees as «всю» (fem. acc.) — a duration expression with no preposition.
Я ви́жу кота́. — lit. "I see cat-ACC." — "I see a cat." Masc. animate → genitive-like ending.
Я иду́ в шко́лу. — lit. "I go into school-ACC." — "I'm going to school." «Шко́ла» is fem., so -а → -у, and «в» + accusative signals motion toward.
Кни́га на столе́. — this is prepositional case (location, «где?»), not accusative — a trap to check you're not over-applying accusative to every noun after в/на. See Prepositional.
Я рабо́таю в пя́тницу. — days of the week after «в» take accusative.
«Студе́нт» refers to a living person (animate), so it borrows the genitive ending -а; «журна́л» is a thing (inanimate), so it stays identical to its nominative form. The animacy of the noun, not just its gender, decides the ending.