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German - Accusative with "sein"? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| mpete16 Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5521 days ago 98 posts - 114 votes  Speaks: Tagalog, English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 4 13 January 2010 at 7:32pm | IP Logged |
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I still don't get this sentence.
"Den ganzen Vormittag war schoenes Wetter" Why is "Den ganzen Vormittag" accusative? I asked my German teacher this, and she just said that it's the object. But there isn't any object with "sein", is there? Like, you wouldn't say "Er ist den Vater", that would be dead wrong. Can anyone please explain this? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jae Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5663 days ago 206 posts - 239 votes Speaks: English*, German, Latin Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, French | Message 2 of 4 13 January 2010 at 8:46pm | IP Logged |
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So, I think the problem lies in your translation. I believe you are translating it as: The whole morning was nice weather." The actual translation is more similar to: "The whole morning there was nice weather." You could also write it so: "Den ganzen Vormittag gab es schoenes Wetter." Basically, time phrases are always accusative, not because they're the object, just because that's how it is in German. That means that also in the sentence "Den ganzen Nachmittag habe ich gearbeitet." (I worked the entire afternoon.) Hope that cleared it up. Feel free to PM me if you have any further questions. Viel Glueck!
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| Dripdrip Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5523 days ago 58 posts - 62 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Italian | Message 3 of 4 13 January 2010 at 8:54pm | IP Logged |
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'Den ganzen Vormittag' is an adverbial time phrase and it's in the accusative because it indicates the length of time. It may come first in the sentence, but it is not the subject. A different sentence could be 'Den ganzen vormittag sang meine Schwester.' 'Meine Schwester sang' is the subject followed by the verb - telling you who did something. 'Den ganzen Vormittag' is the adverbial phrase that tells you how long she was doing it for.
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 magister Pro Member United States Joined 6602 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 4 13 January 2010 at 8:56pm | IP Logged |
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Hi mpete,
The accusative case in German has other functions besides indicating the direct object. The function you've encountered above is to express a period of definite time. For example, Jeden Freitag stehle ich die Katzen von meinem Nachbarn. (Every Friday I steal my neighbor's cats.) or Die Katzen verbrachten einen Monat in meinem Keller. (The cats spent a month in my basement.) Edit: Oh wait, my second example will lead you astray. Here, einen Monat really is a direct object... Edited by magister on 13 January 2010 at 9:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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