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This is alist ofgrammatical cases as they are used by variousinflectional languages that havedeclension.
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.
Note: Most cases used for location and motion can be used for time as well.
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 |
Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
---|---|---|---|
Allative case | inHungarian and inFinnish: the adjacency inEstonian and inFinnish: 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 |
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 |
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 theaccusative 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" orhét órakor "at seven o'clock";éjfélkor "at midnight";karácsonykor "at Christmas". | Hungarian |Finnish (rare)[6] |
interior | surface | adjacency | state | |
from | Elative | Delative | Ablative | Exessive |
at/in | Inessive | Superessive | Adessive | Essive |
(in)to | Illative | Sublative | Allative | Translative |
via | Perlative | Prolative |
For meanings of the termsagent,patient,experiencer, andinstrument, seethematic 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 thedoor andit opened | Basque |Tibetan |
Absolutive case (2) | patient, involuntary experiencer | he pushed thedoor andit opened;he slipped | active-stative languages |
Absolutive case (3) | patient; experiencer; instrument | he pushed thedoor with hishand andit opened | Inuktitut |
Accusative case (1) | patient | he pushed thedoor 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 atransitive verb;made from;about;for a time | I seeher | Inuktitut |Persian |Turkish |Serbo-Croatian |
Agentive case | agent, specifies or asks aboutwho orwhat; specific agent that is subset of a general topic or subject | it wasshe who committed the crime; as for him, hishead hurts | Japanese,[5]Mongsen Ao[8] |
Direct case | direct subject or object of a transitive or intransitive verb | I sawher;I gave her thebook. | Scottish Gaelic[9] | many languages withAustronesian 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 questionhow? | by means of the house | Estonian (rare) |Finnish[10] |
Instrumental | instrument, answers questionusing 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 andit opened | nominative–accusative languages (includingmarked 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 sawher; I gaveher 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 sawher; I gaveher the book; withher. | 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 |
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 calledlokál in Czech and Slovak,miejscownik in Polish,місцевий (miscevý) in Ukrainian andмесны (miesny) in Belarusian; these names imply that this case also coverslocative 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 |
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 |
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 |