List of grammatical cases
This is a list of grammatical cases as they are used by various inflectional languages that have declension.
Place and time[]
Note: Most cases used for location and motion can be used for time as well.
Location[]
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adessive case | adjacent location | near/at/by the house | Estonian | Finnish[1] | Hungarian | Lezgian | Lithuanian | Livonian | Tlingit | Tsez |
| Antessive case | anterior location | before the house | Dravidian languages[2] |
| Apudessive case[3] | location next to something | next to the house | Tsez |
| Inessive case | inside something | inside the house | Armenian | Basque | Erzya | Estonian | Lithuanian | Finnish[4] | Hungarian | Ossetic | Tsez |
| Intrative case | between something | between the houses | Limbu | Quechua |
| Locative case | location | at/on/in the house | Armenian (Eastern) | Azeri | Bengali | Belarusian | Bosnian | Chuvash | Croatian | Czech | Hungarian (only for some traditional town names) | Inari Sami | Inuktitut | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Latin (restricted) | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Northern Sami | Polish | Quechua | Russian | Sanskrit | Serbian | Skolt Sami | Slovak | Slovene | Sorbian | Tamil | Telugu | Tlingit | Turkish | Ukrainian | Uzbek (Note: the case in Slavic languages termed the "locative case" in English is actually a prepositional case.) |
| Pertingent case | in contact with something | touching the house | Tlingit | Archi |
| Postessive case | posterior location | behind the house | Lezgian | Agul |
| Subessive case | under something | under/below the house | Tsez |
| Superessive case | on the surface | on (top of) the house | Hungarian | Ossetic | Tsez | Finnish[6] |
Motion from[]
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ablative case | movement away from something | away from the house | Albanian | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Azeri | Chuvash | Erzya | Estonian | Evenki | Finnish[1] | Hungarian | Inuktitut | Japanese[5] | Latin | Manchu | Ossetic | Quechua | Tamil[7] | Sanskrit | Tibetan | Tlingit | Tsez | Turkish | Uzbek | Yukaghir |
| Adelative case | movement from somewhere near | from near the house | Lezgian |
| Delative case | movement from the surface | from (the top of) the house | Hungarian | Finnish[6] |
| Egressive case | marking the beginning of a movement or time | beginning from the house | Udmurt |
| Elative case | out of something | out of the house | Erzya | Estonian | Evenki | Finnish[4] | Hungarian |
| Initiative case | starting point of an action | beginning from the house | Manchu |
| Postelative case | movement from behind | from behind the house | Lezgian |
Motion to[]
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allative case | in Hungarian and in Finnish: movement to (the adjacency of) something in Estonian and in Finnish: movement onto something |
to the house onto the house |
Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[1] | Hungarian | Inuktitut | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Lithuanian | Manchu | Tamil[7] | Tlingit | Tsez | Turkish | Tuvan | Uzbek |
| Illative case | movement into something | into the house | Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[4] | Hungarian | Inari Sami | Lithuanian | Northern Sami | Skolt Sami | Tamil[7] | Tsez |
| Lative case | movement to something | to/into the house | Erzya | Finnish[6] | Quechua | Tsez | Turkish | German |
| Sublative case | movement onto the surface or below something | on(to) the house / under the house | Hungarian | Tsez | Finnish[6] |
| Superlative case | movement over or onto the top of something | on(to) the house / on top of the house | Northeast Caucasian languages: Bezhta | Hinuq | Tsez |
| Terminative case | marking the end of a movement or time | as far as the house | Chuvash | Estonian | Hungarian | Japanese[5] | Manchu | Quechua |
Motion via[]
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perlative case | movement through or along | through/along the house | Evenki | Tocharian A & B | Warlpiri | Yankunytjatjara |
| Prolative case (= prosecutive case, vialis case) | movement using a surface or way | by way of/through the house | Erzya | Estonian (rare) | Finnish (rare)[6] | Tlingit | Greenlandic | Inuktitut |
Time[]
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ablative case | specifying a time when and within which | E.g.: eō tempore, "at that time"; paucīs hōrīs, "within a few hours". | Latin | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Finnish |
| Accusative case | indicating duration of time known as the accusative of duration of time |
E.g.: multos annos, "for many years"; ducentos annos, "for 200 years." |
Latin | German | Esperanto | Serbian | |
| Essive case | used for specifying days and dates when something happens | E.g.: maanantaina, "on Monday"; kuudentena joulukuuta, "on the 6th of December". |
Finnish | Estonian |
| specifying a deadline | E.g.: 午後5時半までに (Gogo go-ji han made-ni) "by 5:30 PM" | Japanese[5] | |
| Temporal case | specifying a time | E.g.: hétkor "at seven" or hét órakor "at seven o'clock"; éjfélkor "at midnight"; karácsonykor "at Christmas". | Hungarian | Finnish (rare)[6] |
Chart for review for the basic cases[]
| interior | surface | adjacency | state | |
| from | Elative | Delative | Ablative | Exessive |
| at/in | Inessive | Superessive | Adessive | Essive |
| (in)to | Illative | Sublative | Allative | Translative |
| via | Perlative | Prolative |
Morphosyntactic alignment[]
For meanings of the terms agent, patient, experiencer, and instrument, see thematic relation.
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Absolutive case (1) | patient, experiencer; subject of an intransitive verb and direct object of a transitive verb | he pushed the door and it opened | Basque | Tibetan |
| Absolutive case (2) | patient, involuntary experiencer | he pushed the door and it opened; he slipped | active languages |
| Absolutive case (3) | patient; experiencer; instrument | he pushed the door with his hand and it opened | Inuktitut |
| Accusative case (1) | patient | he pushed the door and it opened | Akkadian | Albanian | Arabic | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Azeri | Bosnian | Croatian | Czech | Erzya | Esperanto | Faroese | Finnish | German | Greek | Hungarian | Icelandic | Inari Sami | Japanese[5] | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Northern Sami | Polish | Romanian | Russian | Sanskrit | Serbian | Skolt Sami | Slovak | Slovene | Ukrainian | Georgian |
| Accusative case (2) | direct object of a transitive verb; made from; about; for a time | I see her | Inuktitut | Persian | Turkish | Serbo-Croatian |
| Agentive case | agent, specifies or asks about who or what; specific agent that is subset of a general topic or subject | it was she who committed the crime; as for him, his head hurts | Japanese[5] |
| Ergative case | agent; subject of a transitive verb | he pushed the door and it opened | Basque | Chechen | Dyirbal | Georgian | Kashmiri | Samoan | Tibetan | Tlingit | Tsez |
| Ergative-genitive case | agent, possession | he pushed the door and it opened; her dog | Classic Maya | Inuktitut |
| Instructive | means, answers question how? | by means of the house | Estonian (rare) | Finnish[8] |
| Instrumental | instrument, answers question using which thing? | with the house | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Belarusian | Bosnian | Croatian | Czech | Evenki | Georgian | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Polish | Russian | Sanskrit | Serbian | Slovak | Slovene | Tsez | Ukrainian | Yukaghir |
| Instrumental-comitative case | instrument, in company of something | with the house | Chuvash | Hungarian | Tlingit |
| Nominative case (1) | agent, experiencer; subject of a transitive or intransitive verb | he pushed the door and it opened | nominative–accusative languages (including marked nominative languages) |
| Nominative case (2) | agent; voluntary experiencer | he pushed the door and it opened; she paused | active languages |
| Objective case (1) | direct or indirect object of verb | I saw her; I gave her the book. | Bengali | Chuvash |
| Objective/Oblique (2) | direct or indirect object of verb or object of preposition; a catch-all case for any situation except nominative or genitive | I saw her; I gave her the book; with her. | English | Swedish | Danish | Norwegian | Bulgarian |
| Oblique case | all-round case; any situation except nominative or vocative | concerning the house | Anglo-Norman[citation needed] | Hindi | Old French | Old Provençal | Telugu | Tibetan |
| Intransitive case (also called passive or patient case) | the subject of an intransitive verb or the logical complement of a transitive verb | The door opened | languages of the Caucasus | Ainu |
| Pegative case | agent in a clause with a dative argument | he gave the book to him | Azoyú Tlapanec |
Relation[]
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ablative case | all-round indirect case | concerning the house | Albanian | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Sanskrit | Inuktitut | Kashmiri | Latin | Lithuanian | Finnish[1] |
| Aversive case | avoiding or fear | avoiding the house | Warlpiri | Yidiny |
| Benefactive case | for, for the benefit of, intended for | for the house | Basque | Quechua | Telugu |
| Causal case | because, because of | because of the house | Quechua | Telugu |
| Causal-final case | efficient or final cause | for a house | Chuvash | Hungarian |
| Comitative case | in company of something | with the house | Dumi | Ingush | Estonian | Finnish (rare);[8] Inari Sami | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Northern Sami | Skolt Sami | Ossetic (only in Iron) | Tibetan |
| Dative case | shows direction or recipient | for/to the house | Albanian | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Azeri | Belarusian | Bosnian | Croatian | Czech | Erzya | Faroese | Georgian | German | Greek | Hindi | Hungarian | Icelandic | Inuktitut | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Ossetic | Polish | Romanian | Russian | Sanskrit | Scottish Gaelic† | Serbian | Slovak | Slovene | Tsez | Turkish | Ukrainian
^† The case classically referred to as dative in Scottish Gaelic has shifted to, and is sometimes called, a prepositional case. |
| Distributive case | distribution by piece | per house | Chuvash | Hungarian | Manchu | Finnish[6] |
| Distributive-temporal case | how often something happens | daily; on Sundays | Hungarian; Finnish[6] |
| Genitive case | shows generic relationship, generally ownership, but also composition, reference, description, etc. | of the house; the house's | Akkadian | Albanian | Arabic | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Azeri | Bengali | Belarusian | Bosnian | Chuvash | Croatian | Czech | Danish | Dutch | English | Erzya | Estonian | Faroese | Finnish | Georgian | German | Greek | Hungarian | Icelandic | Inari Sami | Irish | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Northern Sami | Norwegian | Persian[9] | Polish | Romanian | Russian | Sanskrit | Scottish Gaelic | Serbian | Skolt Sami | Slovak | Slovene | Swedish | Tibetan | Tsez | Turkish | Ukrainian |
| Ornative case | endowment with something | equipped with a house | Dumi; Hungarian |
| Possessed case | possession by something | the house is owned by someone | Tlingit |
| Possessive case | direct ownership of something | owned by the house | English | Turkish |
| Privative case | lacking something | without a house | Chuvash | Wagiman |
| Semblative/Similative case | Similarity to something | that tree is like a house | Wagiman |
| Sociative case | along with something, together with something | with the house | Hungarian | Ossetic |
| Substituting something, instead of | instead of him | Archi |
Semantics[]
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partitive case | used for amounts | three (of the) houses | Estonian | Finnish[10] | Inari Sami | Russian | Skolt Sami |
| Prepositional case | when certain prepositions precede the noun | in/on/about the house | Belarusian† | Czech† | Polish† | Russian | Scottish Gaelic‡ | Slovak† | Ukrainian†
^† This case is called lokál in Czech and Slovak, miejscownik in Polish, місцевий (miscevý) in Ukrainian and месны (miesny) in Belarusian; these names imply that this case also covers Locative case. |
| Vocative case | used for addressing someone, with or without a preposition | Hey, father! O father! Father! |
Albanian (rare) | Belarusian (rare) | Bulgarian | Bosnian | Croatian | Czech | Georgian | Greek | Hindi | Irish | Itelmen | Kashmiri | Ket | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Macedonian | Nivkh | Polish | Romanian | Russian (rare) | Sanskrit | Scottish Gaelic | Serbian | Slovak | Telugu | Ukrainian | Nahuatl |
State[]
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abessive case | the lack of something | without the house | Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[8] | Inari Sami | Skolt Sami | Quechua |
| Adverbial case | being as something | as a house | Georgian | Udmurt | Finnic languages | Abkhaz |
| Comparative case | similarity with something | similar to the house | Dumi | Mari | Nivkh |
| Equative case | comparison with something | like the house | Ossetic | Sumerian | Tlingit | Tsez |
| Essive case | temporary state of being | as the house | Estonian | Finnish[10] | Inari Sami | Inuktitut | Middle Egyptian | Northern Sami | Skolt Sami | Tsez |
| Essive-formal case | marking a condition as a quality (a kind of shape) | as a house | Hungarian | Manchu |
| Essive-modal case | marking a condition as a quality (a way of being) | as a house | Hungarian |
| Exessive case | marking a transition from a condition | from being a house (i.e., "it stops being a house") | Estonian (rare) | Finnish (dialectal) |
| Formal case | marking a condition as a quality | as a house | Hungarian |
| Identical case | showing that something is identical | being the house | Manchu |
| Orientative case | oriented towards something | turned towards the house | Chukchi | Manchu |
| Revertive case | backwards to something | against the house | Manchu |
| Translative case | change of a condition into another | (turning) into a house | Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[10] | Hungarian | Khanty | Manchu |
References[]
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2009) |
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Exterior local cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ^ S. Agesthialingom, Prakya Sreesaila Subrahmanyam, Dravidian Linguistics- V: (proceedings of the Seminar on Dravidian Linguistics- V), Page 275, 1976 - 582 pages, Google book search link quote: "(6) 'before' (antessive), (7) 'behind, ..."
- ^ Robert, Stéphane Robert (1999). Language Diversity and Cognitive Representations. p. 229. ISBN 978-9027223555.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Interior Local Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Takahashi, Tarou; et al. (2010). A Japanese Grammar (in Japanese) (4 ed.). Japan: Hitsuji Shobou. p. 27. ISBN 978-4-89476-244-2.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish grammar - adverbial cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/public/h_sch_9a.pdf
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Means Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
- ^ Behrang QasemiZadeh, Saeed Rahimi, Persian in MULTEXT-East Framework, 5th International Conference on NLP, FinTAL 2006 Turku, Finland, August 23–25, 2006 Proceedings
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - General Local Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
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