Accusative Total Object – Human objects – Minut Sinut
This page contains a list of accusative total object verbs. All these verbs can have a person as their object, and said object will appear in the accusative case. The accusative total object in the following sentences has been marked in green.
| Pronoun | Finnish | English |
|---|---|---|
| kuka | Kenet presidentti kutsui juhliin? | Whom did the president invite to the party? |
| minä | Presidentti kutsui minut juhliin. | The president invited me to the party. |
| sinä | Presidentti kutsui sinut juhliin. | The president invited you to the party. |
| hän | Presidentti kutsui hänet juhliin. | The president invited him/her to the party. |
| me | Presidentti kutsui meidät juhliin. | The president invited us to the party. |
| te | Presidentti kutsui teidät juhliin. | The president invited you (plural) to the party. |
| he | Presidentti kutsui heidät juhliin. | The president invited them to the party. |
What is the accusative case?
The accusative is a grammatical case. It expresses that an element in the sentence is the direct object of a verb. In most circumstances, the accusative looks like one of the other Finnish cases. Depending on the object, the accusative case can look like:
- The genitive case: Adoptoin vauvan. Tapaan miehen. Tapan rikollisen. Muistan ystävän.
- The nominative case: Adoptoi vauva! Tapaa mies! Tapa rikollinen! Muista ystävä!
- The T-plural: Adoptoin vauvat. Tapaan miehet. Tapan rikolliset. Muistan ystävät.
The only situation where the accusative has “its own ending” – distinct from any of the other Finnish cases – is when we’re using a personal pronoun. The variation between genitive and nominative that we see when our object is a noun will disappear when we use a personal pronoun instead.
- Basic present tense: [Liisa kutsuu hänet juhliin] versus [Liisa kutsuu Tiinan juhliin]
- Basic past tense: [Liisa kutsui hänet juhliin] versus [Liisa kutsui Tiinan juhliin]
- Conditional: [Kutsuisitko hänet juhliin?] versus [Kutsuisitko Tiinan juhliin?]
- Singular imperative: [Kutsu hänet juhliin!] versus [Kutsu Tiina juhliin!]
- Plural imperative: [Kutsukaa hänet juhliin!] versus [Kutsukaa Tiina juhliin!]
- Necessity sentence: [Sinun täytyy kutsua hänet juhliin] versus [Sinun täytyy kutsua Tiina juhliin]
- Passive sentence: [Kutsutaan hänet juhliin!] versus [Kutsutaan Tiina juhliin!]
I’m reluctant to use the term “accusative” for all total objects partly because of my experiences both as a Finnish learner and as a Finnish teacher. As a learner, I had never heard of this concept before I started learning Finnish. The Finnish classes I took didn’t teach the case other than as a small peculiarity that only had to do with personal pronouns. I think I would have struggled quite a bit trying to wrap my head around this new concept. I’m quite grateful that this part of the grammar was simplified for me.
As a Finnish teacher, I get to teach a lot of students whose first foreign language is Finnish. They don’t have a base knowledge of Latin or other languages to draw from. Introducing yet another case, but then stating that the case doesn’t have “its own ending”, is too much for many students with limited experience with foreign languages and/or schooling as a whole.
As far as I’m concerned, the accusative case is only present in the words minut, sinut, hänet, meidät, teidät, heidät and kenet. My attitude is backed up by most Finnish course books you’ll find on the market and by my colleagues at work. Some readers of my website disagree with my choice. If you feel you benefit from understanding the term, that’s great!
Accusative total object verbs
I’ve opted for using hänet in all of my examples, but you could replace it with any of the other personal pronouns. For example, you can easily replace hänet with minut, sinut or meidät in the sentence “Adoptoin hänet” below.
| Verb | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| adoptoida | Adoptoin hänet. | I adopted him. |
| esitellä | Esittelin hänet muille. | I introduced him to the others. |
| herättää | Herätin hänet viideltä. | I woke him up at five o’clock. |
| haastaa | Haastoin hänet kaksintaisteluun. | I challenged him to a duel. |
| huomata | Huomasin hänet kaukaa. | I noticed him from far away. |
| hylätä | Hylkäsin hänet. | I rejected/abandoned him. |
| hyväksyä | Hyväksyin hänet osaksi perhettä. | I accepted him as part of the family. |
| häätää | Häädin hänet ulos talosta. | I threw him out of the house. |
| johtaa | Johdin hänet työhuoneeseeni. | I led him to my office. |
| johtaa | Johdin hänet pois metsästä. | I led him out of the woods. |
| jättää | Jätin hänet kotiin. | I left him at home. |
| karkottaa | Karkotin hänet maasta. | I deported him from the country. |
| kasvattaa | Kasvatin hänet yksin. | I raised him alone. |
| komentaa | Komensin hänet ulos autosta. | I commanded him out of the car. |
| kouluttaa | Koulutin hänet itse. | I trained him myself. |
| kuljettaa | Kuljetin hänet sairaalaan. | I drove him to the hospital. |
| kutsua | Kutsuin hänet juhliin. | I invited him to the party. |
| kuulla | Kuulin hänet. | I heard him. |
| lähettää | Lähetin hänet pois. | I sent him away. |
| löytää | Löysin hänet kuolleena sängystä. | I found him dead in bed. |
| mainita | Mainitsin hänet blogissani. | I mentioned him on my blog. |
| muistaa | Muistin hänet koulusta. | I remembered him from school. |
| murhata | Murhasin hänet veitsellä. | I murdered him with a knife. |
| myrkyttää | Myrkytin hänet. | I poisoned him. |
| nolata | Nolasin hänet täysin. | I embarrassed him completely. |
| nähdä | Näin hänet bussiasemalla. | I saw him at the bus station. |
| ohjata | Ohjasin hänet istumapaikalleen. | I directed him to his seat. |
| palkata | Palkkasin hänet heti. | I hired him immediately. |
| pelastaa | Pelastin hänet palavasta talosta. | I saved him from a burning house. |
| päästää | Päästin hänet sisään. | I let him in. |
| saattaa | Saatoin hänet asemalle. | I escorted him to the station. |
| synnyttää | Synnytin hänet heinäkuussa. | I gave birth to him in July. |
| tappaa | Tapoin hänet. | I killed him. |
| tavoittaa | Tavoitin hänet puhelimitse. | I reached him by phone. |
| torjua | Torjuin hänet ikänsä takia. | I rejected him because of his age. |
| tunnistaa | Tunnistin hänet heti. | I recognized him immediately. |
| tuomita | Tuomitsin hänet kuolemaan. | I sentenced him to death. |
| unohtaa | Unohdin hänet täysin. | I forgot him completely. |
| vapauttaa | Vapautin hänet työtehtävistään. | I relieved him of his duties. |
| viedä | Vein hänet turvaan. | I took him to safety. |
It might be a good idea to cross-reference the verb on this page with the verbs in my article called “Total Object Verbs – Genitive Object – Verb List“.
Pronouns with other types of verbs
The list above contains accusative total object verbs. As a refresher, I’m listing other types of object verbs below. You can click the link to read more about these types of verbs and how the personal pronoun object behaves in those types of sentences.
I find this important to add because many English verbs will get an object while their Finnish equivalent won’t. Perhaps one day, I will write a new article on this topic from an English language perspective.
| Verb | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| to kill | Tapoin hänet. | I killed him. |
| to call | Soitin hänelle. | I called him. |
| to love | Rakastin häntä. | I loved him. |
| to like | Tykkäsin hänestä. | I liked him. |
3.1. Partitive verbs
Some verbs will require their object to be inflected in the partitive case.
| Verb | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| rakastaa | Rakastan häntä. | I love him. |
| ihailla | Ihailen häntä. | I admire him. |
| inhota | Inhoan häntä. | I detest him. |
| kaivata | Kaipaan häntä. | I miss him. |
- Beginners: you should read this article about partitive verbs
- Advanced learners: you would benefit greatly from reading about so-called partitive verbs, as well as this in-depth view of different types of objects.
3.2. Verb rections: kenelle, keneltä, kenelle
Some verbs require a location case. In those sentences, the personal pronoun is not an object, even if it’s possible that it might function as an object in your native language. Find more examples here.
| Verb | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| soittaa | Soitin hänelle. | I called him. |
| luottaa | Luotin häneen. | I trusted him. |
| pitää | Pidin hänestä. | I liked him. |
3.3. Third infinitive verbs
Some verbs require a “double rection”: their object will appear in a certain form while the verb related will appear in the third infinitive’s -maan form. I have an article all about third infinitive rections. In addition, you can also read this more detailed article about verbs that express that you’re making someone do something. These verbs can have an object either in the partitive or the accusative case, as I’ve explained in the articles I’m linking.
| Verb | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| kannustaa | Kannustin häntä osallistumaan. | I encouraged him to get involved. |
| opettaa | Opetin häntä ajamaan. | I taught him to drive. |
| ohjata | Ohjasin hänet istumaan. | I directed him to sit down. |
| käskeä | Käskin hänet menemään ulos. | I ordered him to go outside. |
3.4. Translative verb rections
Another “double rection” group of verbs get an object, which is used in combination with the translative case. You can find more examples of this type of verbs here. The object can be either partitive or accusative, depending on the verb used.
| Verb | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| syyttää | Syytin häntä valehtelijaksi. | I accused him of being a liar. |
| epäillä | Epäilin häntä syylliseksi. | I suspected him of being guilty. |
| palkata | Palkkasin hänet sihteeriksi. | I hired him as a secretary. |
| valita | Valitsin hänet tiiminvetäjäksi. | I chose him as team leader. |
Hopefully this list of accusative total object verbs helps you get a more complete picture of verbs that generally get an object!
Can you tell us where you got this information from? I can’t find this list of accusative verbs in any textbook, and I have collected many.
First, a technical naming issue: this list contains “total object verbs”, not “accusative verbs”. In this article, I have narrowed down the list of “total object verbs” to ONLY those total object verbs that can have a personal pronoun as their object. One example of a “total object verb” that is not in this list would be aloittaa: you can’t “start” a person – even if theoretically I would use the accusative if I were to say “I start him”.
There is no specific group of JUST “accusative verbs”. These verbs will be used with the accusative of personal pronouns (minut, sinut) OR the -n ending of noun (lapsen, talon). The correct term is “total object verbs”. “Accusative total object verbs” is a term that doesn’t really exist, but which I find useful for this article, because I wanted to specifically list verbs that can have minut, sinut, hänet etc. as their object.
Then again, your question still kind of holds true because I can’t think of any textbook that specifically lists “total object verbs” with any amount of detail. I composed this list myself, through endless perusing of verb lists and dictionaries. I also decided to only add verbs that are very CLEARLY total object verbs. There are a lot of verbs that in certain circumstances would fit in this list, but in a different context wouldn’t. All of those were left out here. It makes my list sadly a little short, but a short list is better than no list!
Thankyou for your time and effort .. 🙏💜 it is very useful to me …
What is the difference between Minua and Minut then?
Minua is the partitive form, minut is the accusative form. You can read more about the partitive. One reason to use the partitive is with a partitive verb (e.g. Rakastaa sinua)