Accusative Phrases with wünschen

Frohes neues Jahr from our team here at Yabla German!

Unfortunately, the newsletter is not in time to wish you guten Rutsch this year (see this lesson for more information on that), but we hope you had a lovely Sylvester.

Have you ever wondered how the adjectival endings on phrases such as these are formed? In the examples below, you can see the full versions of these expressions. In the first one, Ich is the subject, das Jahr is the direct object, and Ihnen und Ihren Familien is the indirect object. All adjectives pertaining to das Jahr have the appropriate accusative case ending for a neuter noun, as does the indefinite article ein.

Ich wünsche Ihnen und Ihren Familien

I wish you and your families

ein frohes, gesundes und gesegnetes neues Jahr zweitausendzwölf!

a happy, healthy and blessed New Year two thousand twelve!

Captions 36-37, Angela Merkel - Neujahrsansprache
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Similarly, in the following sentence, der Rutsch is the direct object, and all articles and adjectives (ein, gut) receive the accusative ending for a masculine noun.

Ich wünsch' euch auch einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr.

I also wish you all "a good slide" into the New Year.

Caption 100, Silvester - Vorsätze für das neue Jahr - Linkenheim
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Of course, this is not at all restricted to New Year’s expressions. All of the basic phrases that you already know also follow this rule, for example, Guten Tag and Schönen Tag noch (der Tag), Guten Abend (der Abend), Gute Reise (die Reise), and Gute Nacht (die Nacht). Understanding why these expressions include the adjective endings they do unlocks a very essential aspect of German grammar.

Dann wünsch' ich dir noch einen schönen Tag.

Then I wish you a nice day.

Caption 45, Jenny interviewt - Sabine
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Einen schönen guten Abend aus Karlsruhe.

A pleasant good evening from Karlsruhe.

Caption 1, Architektur - der Stadt Karlsruhe
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Further Learning
We hope that you will take special note of these and other phrases when you see them on Yabla German in the future. If you want some practice with your direct and indirect objects, write some sentences about the presents you gave to various people this year, for example: Ich (subject) habe meiner Mutter (indirect object) einen Schal (direct object) geschenkt.