The Accusative Case [UK. GRAMMAR PORTAL]

[TseDanylo]

Вітаю!

Ukrainian is an East Slavic language spoken primarily in Western and Central Ukraine by 40 million people making it the third most spoken Slavic language by number of native speakers in the world!

• If there are any terms you don't understand please refer to the [glossary])https://www.duolingo.com/comment/17638481)

What is The Accusative Case?

The Accusative Case is used for the direct object of a transitive verb and also after certain prepositions. It's not only the one of the most essential cases in the Ukrainian language but also one of the easiest!

How to form the Accusative Case

In the Accusative, only two types of nouns change; Feminine and Masculine Animate (A masculine noun that represents a living animal or thing).

FEMININE NOUNS

• Nouns ending in -а change to -у
• Nouns ending in -я change to -ю

Examples

• Мама. Я кохаю маму. - Mom. I love mom.
• Диня. Я їм диню. - Melon. I am eating a melon

MASCULINE NOUNS

Note that only living masculine nouns change (e.g. boy, man, uncle etc.)

• Hard and Mixed nouns add -а

• Soft nouns add я

• Брат. Я маю брата. - Brother. I have a brother

• Лікар. Я хочу бачити лікаря. - Doctor. I want to see a doctor!

Accusative Prepositions

With most Accusative prepositions, they are only used in the Accusative when they are portraying movement if there is no movement, a different case is used. Here is an example using під which means under.

• Де мій кіт? - Where is the cat?
• Мій кіт під мамою. - My cat is under mom. (*There is no movement involved so a different case is used.)
• Мій кіт заліз під маму. - The cat crawled under mom. (There is movement; The cat crawled under mom)

There are some prepositions however, that always use the Accusative. These are крізь (through), про (about), через (across) and по (in).

When Else To Use The Accusative

You also use the Accusative when expressing phrases like "how long for". For example;

• Я вас чекав цілу годину!

Which translates to

• I waited one whole hour for you!

Some Useful Words

Possesives

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My

• Моя мама - Мою маму
• Мій тато - Мого тата

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Your (sg./inf.)

• Твоя мама - Твою маму
• Твій тато - Твого тата

---

Ones (Explained later)

• Своя мама - Свою маму
• Свій тато - Свого тата

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• His/Her/Its/Their don't change

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Our

• Наша мама - Нашу маму
• Наш тато - Нашого тата

---

Your (pl./f.)

• Ваша мама - Вашу маму
• Ваш тато - Вашого тата

---

This and That

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This

• Ця мама - Цю маму
• Цей тато - Цього тата

---

That

• Та мама - Ту маму
• Той тато - Того тато

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Back To The Grammar Portal

[TaBaxtHV]

Thank you for this post! I have two questions.
First, is тато considered a masculine even though it ends with о?
Second, how is the ending ого pronouced? Does the г become a /v/ sound like in Russian or does it stay a /g/ sound like in Polish?
Again thank you!

[TseDanylo]

1. Тато is an exception to the rule, it's masculine mainly because it's well, a man.

2. Usually it's pronounced "oh-ho" with the stress on the second syllable "доброго' дня" (do-bro-HO dnya)

[TaBaxtHV]

I completely forgot that "г" is always pronounced /h/ in Ukrainian. Thank you for your answer!

[daapdary]

Apparently there is a typo in this lesson: The Accusative Case (UK Grammar Portal).

The example of "That dad":
Той тато - Того тато

should be:
Той тато - Того тата

For hard/mixed masculine nouns, the rule says to add -a, so "тато" (which is masculine despite the -o ending) should become "тата".

I verified this at wiktionary dot org. You can search for the dedicated page for "тато", which shows its declension in Ukrainian, which shows the accusative form as "тата".

I also verified it with Google Translate (English to Ukrainian) as follows:
That dad knows me. -> Той тато мене знає.
I know that dad. -> Я знаю того тата.

So, I think the accusative form of "Той тато" is "Того тата", not "Того тато".