Direct Objects Under Negation

Level 4

An ordinary direct object changes from accusative to genitive when its verb is negated.

How It Works

An ordinary direct object changes from accusative to genitive when its verb is negated. This does not mean every noun in a negative sentence becomes genitive; prepositional and subject relationships remain distinct.

Locate the ordinary object before changing its case: knjigo becomes knjige in Ne berem knjige. In Ana ni v šoli, Ana remains a nominative subject and v šoli retains its locative. Negation is not a sentence-wide genitive conversion.

Examples (3)

  1. Berem knjigo, vendar ne berem časopisa.

    I am reading a book, but I am not reading a newspaper.

  2. Ne poznam Ane.

    I do not know Ana.

  3. Ana ni v šoli.

    Ana is not at school.

How It Connects

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Direct Objects Under NegationLevel 4

Learn This First

Locate ordinary negation and a genitive object without changing unrelated noun phrases.

Words in This Pattern

ne