List of grammatical cases

"List of cases" redirects here. For legal cases, see Lists of case law.

This is a list of grammatical cases as they are used by various inflectional languages that have declension.

This list will mark the case, when it is used, an example of it, and then finally what language(s) the case is used in.

Location and movement

Note: Most cases used for location and motion can be used for time as well.

Location

Case Usage Example Found in
Adessive case close near/at/by the house Estonian | Finnish[1] | Hungarian | Lezgian | Lithuanian | Livonian | Tlingit | Tsez | Kven
Antessive case anterior before the house Dravidian languages[2]
Apudessive case[3] adjacent next to the house Tsez
Inessive case inside inside the house Basque | Erzya | Estonian | Lithuanian | Finnish[4] | Hungarian | Ossetic | Tsez | Kven
Intrative case between between the houses Limbu | Quechua
Locative case location at/on/in the house Armenian (Eastern) | Azeri | Bengali | Belarusian | Bosnian | Chuvash | Croatian | Czech | Gujarati | Hungarian | Inari Sámi | Inuktitut | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Latin (restricted) | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Northern Sámi | Polish | Quechua | Russian | Sanskrit | Serbian | Skolt Sámi | 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.)
Pergressive case vicinity in the vicinity of the house Kamu
Pertingent case contacting touching the house Tlingit | Archi
Postessive case posterior after the house Lezgian | Agul
Subessive case under 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 near or inside 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 the vicinity from near the house Lezgian
Delative case 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 the interior out of the house Erzya | Estonian | Evenki | Finnish[4] | Hungarian | Kven
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:
the adjacency
in Estonian and in Finnish:
the surface		 to the house

onto the house 		Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[1] | Hungarian | Inuktitut | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Lithuanian | Manchu | Tamil[7] | Tlingit | Tsez | Turkish | Tuvan | Uzbek | Kven
Illative case inside into the house Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[4] | Hungarian | Inari Sámi | Lithuanian | Northern Sámi | Skolt Sámi | Tamil[7] | Tsez | Kven
Lative case near or inside to/into the house Erzya | Finnish[6] | Quechua | Tsez | Turkish
Sublative case the surface or below on(to) the house/under the house Hungarian | Tsez | Finnish[6]
Superlative case the top 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 E.g.: eō tempore, "at that time"; paucīs hōrīs, "within a few hours". Latin | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Finnish | Turkish | Kven
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 | Croatian | Russian | Turkish
Essive case used for specifying days and dates E.g.: maanantaina, "on Monday";
kuudentena joulukuuta, "on the 6th of December". 		Finnish | Estonian | Kven
Limitative case 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-stative 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 Sámi | Japanese[5] | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Northern Sámi | Polish | Romanian | Russian | Sanskrit | Serbian | Skolt Sámi | Slovak | Slovene | Ukrainian | Georgian | Yiddish
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], Mongsen Ao[8]
Direct case direct subject or object of a transitive or intransitive verb I saw her; I gave her the book. Scottish Gaelic[9] | many languages with Austronesian Alignment.
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[10]
Instrumental instrument, answers question using what? 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 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
Caritative case because of presence or absence for want of a house Ngiyambaa
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 accompanied with with the house Dumi | Ingush | Estonian | Finnish (rare)[10] | Inari Sámi | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Kven | Northern Sámi | Skolt Sámi | 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 | Ancient 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 | Yiddish

^† 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 frequency 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 Sámi | Irish | Japanese[5] | Kashmiri | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Northern Sámi | Norwegian | Persian[11] | Polish | Romanian | Russian | Sanskrit | Scottish Gaelic | Serbian | Skolt Sámi | Slovak | Slovene | Swedish | Tibetan | Tsez | Turkish | Ukrainian | Kven
Ornative case endowment equipped with a house Dumi; Hungarian
Possessed case passive possession the house is owned Tlingit | Turkish†

^† A sentence with possessed case noun always has to include a possessive case noun.

Possessive case direct ownership owned by the house English | Turkish
Privative case lacking, without without a house Chuvash | Kamu | Martuthunira | Wagiman
Semblative/Similative case similarity, comparing that tree is like a house Wagiman
Sociative case along with, together with (together) with the house Hungarian | Ossetic
Substitutive case substituting, instead of instead of him Archi

Semantics

Case Usage Example Found in
Partitive case used for amounts three (of the) houses Estonian | Finnish[12] | Inari Sámi | Russian | Skolt Sámi | Kven
Prepositional case when 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.
^‡ The prepositional case in Scottish Gaelic is classically referred to as a dative case.

Vocative case used for addressing, with or without a preposition Hey, father!
O father!
Father! 		Albanian (rare) | Belarusian (rare) | Bulgarian | Bosnian | Croatian | Czech | Georgian | Greek | Hindi | Irish | Japanese (literary or poetic) | Scottish Gaelic | Manx | Itelmen | Kashmiri | Ket | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Macedonian | Nivkh | Polish | Romanian | Russian (rare) | Sanskrit | Scottish Gaelic | Serbian | Slovak (rare) | Telugu | Ukrainian | Nahuatl

State

Case Usage Example Found in
Abessive case lacking without the house Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[10] | Inari Sámi | Skolt Sámi | Quechua | Kven
Adverbial case temporary state as a house Georgian | Udmurt | Finnic languages | Abkhaz
Comparative case[13] comparison like the house Dumi | Mari | Nivkh | Czech
Equative case similarity similar to the house Greenlandic | Ossetic | Sumerian | Tlingit | Tsez
Essive case temporary state of being as the house Estonian | Finnish[12] | Inari Sámi | Inuktitut | Middle Egyptian | Northern Sámi | Skolt Sámi | 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 equality being the house Manchu
Orientative case positive orientation turned towards the house Chukchi | Manchu
Revertive case negative orientation against the house Manchu
Translative case change of a condition into another (turning) into a house Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[12] | Hungarian | Japanese | Khanty | Manchu | Kven

References

  1. ^ a b c d Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Exterior local cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  2. ^ 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, ..."
  3. ^ Robert, Stéphane Robert (1999). Language Diversity and Cognitive Representations. p. 229. ISBN 978-9027223555.
  4. ^ a b c Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Interior Local Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish grammar - adverbial cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  7. ^ a b c Schiffman, Harold F. "The Tamil Case System" (PDF). Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  8. ^ Coupe, A. R. (27 August 2008), "A Grammar of Mongsen Ao", A Grammar of Mongsen Ao, De Gruyter Mouton, doi:10.1515/9783110198522, ISBN 978-3-11-019852-2, retrieved 20 November 2024
  9. ^ "Case (definition) - Scottish Gaelic Grammar Wiki". gaelicgrammar.org. Retrieved 26 April 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Means Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  11. ^ Behrang QasemiZadeh, Saeed Rahimi, Persian in MULTEXT-East Framework, 5th International Conference on NLP, FinTAL 2006 Turku, Finland, August 23–25, 2006 Proceedings
  12. ^ a b c Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - General Local Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  13. ^ Caha, Pavel; De Clercq, Karen; Vanden Wyngaerd, Guido (December 2019). "The Fine Structure of the Comparative". Studia Linguistica. 73 (3): 470–521. doi:10.1111/stul.12107. hdl:1854/LU-8577244. ISSN 0039-3193.