What is the Difference Between Nominative and Accusative?

The difference between nominative and accusative cases lies in their functions within a sentence. Here is a summary of their roles:

• Nominative Case: This case is used to refer to who or what is doing the action in a sentence. The subject of a sentence is always in the nominative case. For example, in the sentence "Die Frau liest ein Buch" (The woman reads a book), "Die Frau" (the woman) is in the nominative case because she is performing the action. In another example, "Alfred is my name," the subject "Alfred" is also in the nominative case.
• Accusative Case: This case is used to refer to who or what the action is done to. The object of a sentence is usually in the accusative case. In the sentence "Die Frau liest ein Buch," "ein Buch" (a book) is in the accusative case because it is being read. Similarly, in the sentence "Alfred praised Wulfstan," "Wulfstan" is in the accusative case because he is being praised.

To remember the difference between the two, you can think of the word "accusative" as containing the word "accuse." This implies that it is always what is having action taken against it, just like an accused party in a court case.

Comparative Table: Nominative vs Accusative

Here is a table comparing the differences between nominative and accusative cases:

Please note that the differences between nominative and accusative cases are more pronounced in languages like German and Latin, where they affect nouns, articles, adjectives, and pronouns. In English, the differences are mainly observed in pronouns.