The accusative case

German normally uses the accusative case when the noun is the direct object, i.e. the ‘receiver’ of the action in the sentence:

Der Mann kauft den Computer. The man buys the computer.

In the accusative case, the endings for the modifiers (for example, the definite article, e.g. der, or the indefinite article, e.g. ein), change when used for masculine nouns:

• der changes to den and • ein changes to einen

For nouns in the feminine, the neuter and the plural, the endings are the same as in the nominative case.