Kazakh What: the Accusative

Kazakh grammar for beginners · The thing an action is done to — marked only when it is a particular one

The accusative case marks the definite direct object of an action — the specific person or thing being seen, heard, read, or taken. It answers the questions "whom?" and "what?".

Kazakh marks direct objects only when they are specific and definite (e.g. "the book", "this city"). Indefinite or generic objects (e.g. "a book", "books in general") remain unmarked in the bare nominative.

Choosing the shape

Sound before the ending	Back vowels (a, o, ū, y (а, о, ұ, ы))	Front vowels (ä, e, ı, ö, ü (ә, е, і, ө, ү))
a vowel: a, ä, e, i, o, ö, u, ū, ü, y, ı (а, ә, е, и, о, ө, у, ұ, ү, ы, і)	-ny (-ны)	-nı (-ні)
a voiced consonant: j, z, l, r, i, u (ж, з, л, р, й, у), or a nasal: m, n, ñ (м, н, ң)	-dy (-ды)	-dı (-ді)
a voiceless consonant: k, q, p, s, t, f, h, ş (к, қ, п, с, т, ф, х, ш), or b, v, g, d (б, в, г, д)	-ty (-ты)	-tı (-ті)
a third-person possessive ending (-y, -ı, -sy, -sı (-ы, -і, -сы, -сі))	-n (-н)	-n (-н)

The six shapes

Personal pronouns in the accusative case

For men (мен) ("I") and sen (сен) ("you"), the ending simplifies to a bare vowel, producing menı (мені) ("me") and senı (сені) ("you"). For the third person, ol (ол) drops its l (л) and takes -ny (-ны), producing ony (оны) ("him / her / it").

All other personal pronouns take regular endings based on their final consonant: sızdı (сізді), bızdı (бізді), senderdı (сендерді), sızderdı (сіздерді), and olardy (оларды).

Asking whom and what: kımdı? (кімді?), nenı? (нені?)

Definite vs. indefinite direct objects

The accusative suffix is used only when the direct object is specific and definite ("the lesson", "this book").

When the object refers to an activity in general or an unspecified item ("studying lessons", "reading books"), it remains in the bare nominative without any case ending.

Accusative case after possessive suffixes

When a noun carries a first- or second-person possessive suffix (ending in m (м), ñ (ң), or z (з)), it takes regular voiced -dy / -dı (-ды / -ді).

When a noun carries a third-person possessive suffix (-y / -ı (-ы / -і) or -sy / -sı (-сы / -сі)), the accusative ending simplifies to a single letter: -n (-н).

Parallel structures in Turkish

Turkish and Kazakh distinguish definite direct objects from indefinite objects using the exact same rule: definite specific objects receive an accusative suffix (Kazakh kıtapty oqydym (кітапты оқыдым) ↔ Turkish kitabı okudum), while non-specific or generic objects remain bare (hat aldy (хат алды) ↔ mektup aldı).

In phonetics, Turkish marks the accusative with vowel-only -ı / -i / -u / -ü (inserting buffer -y- after vowels: kapıyı), whereas Kazakh uses an initial consonant in all standard shapes: -ny / -nı (-ны / -ні) after vowels, -dy / -dı (-ды / -ді) after voiced consonants and nasals, and -ty / -tı (-ты / -ті) after voiceless consonants.

After third-person possessive suffixes, Turkish uses -n- plus a vowel (-nı / -ni, as in kalemini), whereas Kazakh uses only a single consonant: -n (-н) (qalamyn (қаламын)).

The personal pronoun accusative forms are near-identical cognates: Kazakh menı (мені), senı (сені), ony (оны) match Turkish beni, seni, onu.

Keep going

← Whose: the Genitive · With: the Instrumental →

All Kazakh lessons

• The Alphabet — Read Kazakh without learning Cyrillic
• How the Letters Behave — The things spelling does not tell you
• Turkish ↔ Kazakh Sound Laws — Six rules that unlock hundreds of words for free
• Vowel Harmony — The same system as Turkish — with one simplification
• Numbers — One to a thousand, and what a number does to the word after it
• Days of the Week — Saturday, and the days counted off it
• Months — Twelve names to learn outright
• Seasons — The four, and the weather that comes with them
• The Plural — One suffix, six written shapes
• Body Parts — From the top of the head to the sole of the foot, and the organs in between
• Personal Pronouns — Four ways to say "you", one word for "he" and "she"
• Possessive — The ending goes on the thing owned
• Family and Kinship — Lineages, generational ties, and reciprocal kinship
• The Copula — Saying "I am a teacher" with no verb at all
• Saying What Something Is Not — One extra word, and the personal ending moves onto it
• Asking a Question — One small word at the end, and nothing else moves
• Having and Not Having — No verb "to have" — only "there is" and "there is not"
• Where: the Locative — Location and time: one ending
• Where to: the Dative — Direction, destination, recipient, and purpose
• Where from: the Ablative — Starting points, origins, and standards of comparison
• Whose: the Genitive — Possession, definite noun phrases, and relationships
• With: the Instrumental — Who you did it with, and what you did it with
• All Seven Together — What each ending marks, and every shape it takes
• Spatial Postpositions and Relational Nouns — Expressing position, direction and time with postpositions and relational nouns
• Verbs, Infinitives and Commands — From dictionary forms in {{-у}} to bare stems, commands and polite requests
• Simple Present Tense — Habitual actions, general facts and future intentions in {{-а / -е / -й}}
• Simple Past Tense — Witnessed and completed past actions in {{-ды / -ді / -ты / -ті}}
• Distant Past and Past Participle — Experienced past actions in {{-ған / -ген}} and conversational negation with {{жоқ}}
• Habitual Past and the "Used-To" Aspect — Expressing past routines in {{-атын / -етін / -йтын / -йтін}} and habitual participles
• Reported and Narrative Past — Hearsay, indirect evidence and surprise discoveries in {{-ыпты / -іпті / -пты / -пті}}
• The Present Continuous Tense — Ongoing actions and the four auxiliary verbs of physical stance
• Future Tenses — Definite intentions in {{-мақ / -мек}} and probable futures in {{-ар / -ер / -р}}
• Desires, Intentions and Optatives — Expressing wishes in {{-ғым келеді}} and making proposals in {{-айын / -айық}}
• Ability and Inability — Expressing "can" and "cannot" using converbs in {{-а / -е / -й}} and {{алу}}
• Conditionals and "If" Clauses — Real and hypothetical conditions in {{-са / -се}} and counterfactuals with {{еді}}
• Sequential Converbs and Action Chains — Linking consecutive actions in {{-ып / -іп / -п}} without repeating conjunctions
• Causative, Passive and Reflexive Verb Voices — Grammatical voice derivations in {{-дыр / -қыз / -т}}, {{-ыл / -іл}} and {{-ыс / -іс}}
• Necessity, Obligation and Possibility — Expressing "must", "need to" and "might" with {{керек}}, {{қажет}} and {{мүмкін}}
• Verb Differences & False Friends — How common Kazakh and Turkish verbs parted ways over time

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