Hyperboreus:

darkweasel:...nothing that makes sense (if I really try to translate it seriously).

That's dog latin for you...

I know.

Just a little testimonial for the accusative here. I've only recently gotten to the intermediate stage in my Esperanto, and I have already thought for some time that the accusative case really does add great expressive flexibility to the language--I'd not want to speak the language without it. I had reservations about the accusative as a komencanto too, but I toughed it out and really understand the purpose of the accusative now.

The good news is, I see the point of it now, too(now I understand it better, funny dat I think, as other people mentioned, I had the reaction "oh, I can't do this, get rid of it for me!". It's not as difficult at my level, now, although I do sometimes get a little puzzled about when it doesn't need to be used. Having heard that Esperanto is completely regular, it makes you think that the use of each aspect of the language is simple, but, of course, language, even quite a logical one like Esperanto, isn't cut and dried.

The most common use of -n is to show the direct object.

But it has many other uses as well, so it ends up being used quite a lot. It can substitute for a preposition, it can express some kind of measurement (time, length, etc), it can show direction of motion.

These are the difficult uses of the accusative. The direct object is actually the easiest part!

Fortunately, the rules for when to use -n are actually straightforward and regular. But it takes time to get used to them and to get yourself into the pattern of automatically using -n when necessary. This isn't too easy, because as I said, there are actually quite a few instances where it's needed (not just for direct object), and you have to keep track of them all. This is probably what's throwing you off. You see -n somewhere and you say "wait a minute, that doesn't look like a direct object!"

You're probably right, and it probably isn't!

Lynchie1975:The good news is, I see the point of it now, too(now I understand it better, funny dat I think, as other people mentioned, I had the reaction "oh, I can't do this, get rid of it for me!". It's not as difficult at my level, now, although I do sometimes get a little puzzled about when it doesn't need to be used. Having heard that Esperanto is completely regular, it makes you think that the use of each aspect of the language is simple, but, of course, language, even quite a logical one like Esperanto, isn't cut and dried.

Perhaps esperanto is a bit difficult for you, but not for many others, whose languages are far more difficult - e.g. Polish language has 7 cases for each noun and adjective in singular and plural (with 3 gramatical genders). For a Pole the accusative of esperanto is just a piece of cake. And think of benefits when you will start learning foreign languages that do have the accusative - they are far more difficult than esperanto - but in this case esperanto will clear the way for them.

German has four cases and three grammatical genders. Latin has six cases and three grammatical genders. Old English, in fact, has about five cases and three grammatical genders. So if you plan to study a case language after Esperanto, like hebda999 said, it will help.

Forigite

I initially had trouble with the accusative, but I stuck with it, and now I'm very glad I did. In fact, if I was to change Esperanto to suit my own tastes, I think at this point I would add in a genitive and dative case. I never imagined I'd want that, but after seeing the flexibility afforded by the accusative in practice, I can suddenly see the lack of flexibility that arises when there aren't even more cases. Haha.

Anyway, one of the most confusing things for me was identifying exactly what was a "direct object". It started to become more clear to me when I stopped thinking about finding the direct object and instead concentrated my attention on the verb itself. It did me a heap of good to learn about verb transitivity. (this english language blog post discusses esperanto verb transitivity very well). Instead of thinking about the noun, look at the verb: does the verb carry out an action on something else?

"Estas", for example, does not. "estas" is basically a verbal equals sign. "Mi estas persono" is essentially the same as saying "Mi = Persono." The verb affects nothing, so there is nothing to attach the accusative -n onto. "Mi amas personon" however, is different. "amas" is not like an equals sign, it's an action that is happening to one of the nouns. Now, ask yourself, which noun is it happening to? It's happening to "persono". So you add the -n to make "personon".

Now, this doesn't always work out just right, but we sort of have the accusative in English. Why bother with "I" and "me"? or "he" and "him"? One or the other would make enough sense. But "I"/"he" tends to be the subject and "me"/"him" the object. You wouldn't say "I love I"--you would say "I love me", nor "I love he" but rather "I love him". Similarly, in Esperanto you wouldn't say "Mi amas mi" or "mi amas li" but "mi amas min" and "mi amas lin."

The accusative can occur more than once in a sentence. Here's one from Edwin Grobe's translation of Edgar Allan Poe's "La Barelo de Amontilado."

Tiom ĝojigis min lin renkonti ke mi opiniis neniam povi finpremi lian manon.

Think it through literally and you'll see how the accusative aids the translation: -- So much (it) joyed me, him to meet, that I thought never able to stop shaking his hand. --

Of course, colloquial English would be something like "I was so happy to meet him that I thought I would never stop shaking his hand." I have Poe's original English here, and it is something perhaps more poetic.

I was so pleased to see him, that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.

I'm still a beginner myself and I'm loving the accusative. When doing the Bildoj kaj Demandoj course I always find it more natural to answer the questions in the same word order as it's asked.
"Kio vi mangxas?"
"Pomon mi mangxas."
When switching back to English it feels weird trying to move the answer to What over to the end and myself up earlier when in Esperanto I can just use -n and have the answer match the question.

Really, if I were to change anything about Esperanto to make it easier for me, it would not be the accusative. I would change the R to be allophonic with the English R so I wouldn't have to put so much effort into learning how to roll my Rs (or flap them, but that takes even more mental gymnastics since I'm predisposed to hear flap Rs as Ds). But of course that's not going to change, since the English R is just so weird and uncommon that nobody but English speakers would actually enjoy such a change.