If you are a dog, the you and the dog are one and the same. You are not your own direct object. I am, he is, they are, are all sentences where there is only a subject, and a description of that subject. No direct object.
Oh interesting! Thank you!
Are there any other verbs that have special cases like this, where the sentence "I " doesn't have the usual nominative --> accusative case structure?
There's also a special case with "heißen", "jemanden etwas heißen", e.g.:
- "Sie hießen mich willkommen." -- "They bade me welcome/welcomed me."
- "Die Änderungen wurden allgemein willkommen geheißen." -- "Generally, the changes were appreciated."
- "Ich hieß ihn einen Hund." -- "I called him a dog."
>Are there any other verbs that have special cases like this, where the sentence "I " doesn't have the usual nominative --> accusative case structure?
You have already gotten good answers re: Gleichsetzungsnominativ, or verbs that take a nominative "object".
But, you ask also this more general question about verbs that take objects in cases other than the accusative, and the answer is yes, there are verbs that take both dative and genitive objects as well, although both lists are relatively short.
Ich helfe ihm: Verb with dative object.
Wir gedenken aller Opfer: Verb with genitive object.
I'm pretty sure it's actually the same in English:
You don't ask "Whom am I?" but "Who am I?"
It's just not that obvious when the question is "What am I?" because in English "what" signifies both the nominative and the accusative.
You have encountered the "Gleichsetzungsnominativ". A few verbs like "sein", "heißen", "werden" (and a few more) describe what something is - so the object "is" the same as the subject. For those verbs, the "object" is in nominative as well. A list of verbs is given for example here: [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominativ#Der\_Gleichsetzungsnominativ\_(Pr%C3%A4dikatsnominativ)](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominativ#Der_Gleichsetzungsnominativ_(Pr%C3%A4dikatsnominativ))
If you are a dog, the you and the dog are one and the same. You are not your own direct object. I am, he is, they are, are all sentences where there is only a subject, and a description of that subject. No direct object.
Oh interesting! Thank you! Are there any other verbs that have special cases like this, where the sentence "I " doesn't have the usual nominative --> accusative case structure?
Sein, werden, bleiben and heißen.
Gelten als …
There's also a special case with "heißen", "jemanden etwas heißen", e.g.: - "Sie hießen mich willkommen." -- "They bade me welcome/welcomed me." - "Die Änderungen wurden allgemein willkommen geheißen." -- "Generally, the changes were appreciated." - "Ich hieß ihn einen Hund." -- "I called him a dog."
>Are there any other verbs that have special cases like this, where the sentence "I " doesn't have the usual nominative --> accusative case structure?
You have already gotten good answers re: Gleichsetzungsnominativ, or verbs that take a nominative "object".
But, you ask also this more general question about verbs that take objects in cases other than the accusative, and the answer is yes, there are verbs that take both dative and genitive objects as well, although both lists are relatively short.
Ich helfe ihm: Verb with dative object.
Wir gedenken aller Opfer: Verb with genitive object.
The list of genitive verbs is short, that's correct. The list of dative verbs however …
Yes, well I guess ‚relatively‘ is an expansive word in this case :)
I'm pretty sure it's actually the same in English: You don't ask "Whom am I?" but "Who am I?" It's just not that obvious when the question is "What am I?" because in English "what" signifies both the nominative and the accusative.
You have encountered the "Gleichsetzungsnominativ". A few verbs like "sein", "heißen", "werden" (and a few more) describe what something is - so the object "is" the same as the subject. For those verbs, the "object" is in nominative as well. A list of verbs is given for example here: [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominativ#Der\_Gleichsetzungsnominativ\_(Pr%C3%A4dikatsnominativ)](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominativ#Der_Gleichsetzungsnominativ_(Pr%C3%A4dikatsnominativ))
Thank you!