Animate masculine direct objects (Accusative)

Masculine Animate Direct Objects

In the previous lesson, you saw that masculine inanimate nouns (like a phone or juice) do not change when they are the direct object of a sentence. However, if a masculine noun is animate—meaning it refers to a person or an animal—it requires special endings in the Accusative case.

The Noun Ending: -a

When a masculine animate noun is the direct object, you add -a to the end of it.

• kot (cat) becomes kota
• nauczyciel (teacher) becomes nauczyciela
• syn (son) becomes syna
• lekarz (doctor) becomes lekarza

Note on dropped vowels: Some common words drop the last vowel of their base form before adding the -a ending.

• pies (dog) becomes psa
• ojciec (father) becomes ojca
• chłopiec (boy) becomes chłopca

The Adjective and Pronoun Ending: -ego

Any adjectives or pronouns that describe a masculine animate direct object must also change. They take the ending -ego.

• mój (my) becomes mojego
• twój (your) becomes twojego
• ten (this) becomes tego
• nowy (new) becomes nowego
• dobry (good) becomes dobrego

Putting It Together

Let's see these endings in action with common verbs that take direct objects, such as widzieć (to see), lubić (to like), and znać (to know).

Subject vs. Object

Remember that only the direct object receives these special endings. The subject (the person or animal doing the action) stays in its basic dictionary form. Notice how the endings change when brat (brother) and nauczyciel (teacher) switch roles in the next two sentences:

Here is one last example showing how an adjective (mały -> małego) changes to match the object (kot -> kota), while the subject (chłopiec) remains completely untouched.