List of grammatical cases

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

Place and time[edit]

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

Location[edit]

Case Usage Example Found in
Adessive case adjacent location near/at/by the house Estonian | Finnish[1] | Hungarian | Lezgian | Lithuanian | Livonian | Tlingit | Tsez | Quechua
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 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] | Latin (restricted) | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Northern Sami | Polish | Quechua | Russian | Sanskrit | Serbian | Skolt Sami | Slovak | Slovene | Sorbian | 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 language
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[edit]

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 | Sanskrit | Tibetan | Tlingit | Tsez | Turkish | Uzbek | Yukaghir
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

Motion to[edit]

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] | Lithuanian | Manchu | Quechua | 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 | Tsez | German | Esperanto
Lative case movement to something to/into the house Erzya | Finnish[6] | Tsez | Turkish | German | Esperanto
Sublative case movement onto the surface or below something on(to) the house / under the house Hungarian | Tsez | Finnish[6]
Terminative case marking the end of a movement or time as far as the house Chuvash | Estonian | Hungarian | Japanese[5] | Manchu

Motion via[edit]

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[edit]

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 | Russian
Essive case used for specifying days and dates when something happens E.g.: maanantaina, "on Monday";
kuudentena joulukuuta, "on the 6th of December". 		Finnish | Esperanto
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[edit]

  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[edit]

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 | 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[7]
Instrumental instrument, answers question using which thing? with the house Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Belarusian | Bosnian | Croatian | Czech | Evenki | Georgian | Japanese[5] | 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 and nominative–absolutive 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 | 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[edit]

Case Usage Example Found in
Ablative case all-round indirect case concerning the house Albanian | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Sanskrit | Inuktitut | 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);[7] Inari Sami | Japanese[5] | 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] | 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] | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Northern Sami | Norwegian | Persian[8] | 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
Privative case lacking something without a house Chuvash | Wagiman
Semblative case Similarity to something that tree is like a house Wagiman
Sociative case along with something, together with something with the house Hungarian | Ossetic

Semantics[edit]

Case Usage Example Found in
Partitive case used for amounts three (of the) houses Estonian | Finnish[9] | 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.
^‡ The prepositional case in Scottish Gaelic is classically referred to as a dative 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 | Ket | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Macedonian | Nivkh | Polish | Romanian | Russian (rare) | Sanskrit | Scottish Gaelic | Serbian | Telugu | Ukrainian | Nahuatl

State[edit]

Case Usage Example Found in
Abessive case the lack of something without the house Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[7] | 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[9] | 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[9] | Hungarian | Khanty | Manchu

References[edit]

  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 Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Means Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  8. ^ Behrang QasemiZadeh, Saeed Rahimi, Persian in MULTEXT-East Framework, 5th International Conference on NLP, FinTAL 2006 Turku, Finland, August 23-25, 2006 Proceedings
  9. ^ a b c Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - General Local Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
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