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Ingrammar, anadverbial genitive is anoun declined in thegenitive case that functions as anadverb.
InOld andMiddle English, the genitive case wasproductive, and adverbial genitives were commonplace. WhileModern English does not fully retain the genitive case, it has left various relics, including a number of adverbial genitives. Some of them are now analyzed as ordinary adverbs, including the following:
Some words were formed from the adverbial genitive along with an additionalparasitic-t:
The adverbial genitive also survives in a number of stock phrases; for example, in "I work days and sleep nights", the wordsdays andnights are analyzed as plural nouns but are in fact derived historically from the genitive or instrumental cases ofday andnight. (That they function as adverbs rather than as direct objects is clear from the rephrasing "I work during the day and sleep at night.") The modern British expression "Of an afternoon I go for a walk" has a similar origin, but uses theperiphrasis "of +noun" to replace the original genitive. This periphrastic form has variously been marked as used "particularly in isolated and mountainous regions of the southern United States"[15] and as having "a distinctly literary feel".[16]
German uses the genitive as a productive case, in addition to adverbial genitive expressions.
The adverbial suffix-erweise added to adjectives is derived from the feminine singular genitive adjective ending-er agreeing with the nounWeise 'manner'. For example, the adverbglücklicherweise 'fortunately' can be analyzed asglücklicher Weise 'fortunate way [genitive]', i.e. 'in a fortunate way' or more explicitly ‘in a manner of good fortune’ (which also hints at the possessive role of the case).
The conjunctionfalls ('if') is the genitive ofFall 'case'. Likewise forkeinesfalls/keineswegs ('by no means of'),andernfalls ('otherwise' i.e. ‘another way of’).
The prepositionangesichts ('in view of') is the genitive ofAngesicht ('face').
The time expressionsmorgens,mittags,abends,nachts,eines Tages (one day) andeines Nachts (one night; analogized witheines Tages, thoughNacht is feminine) use the adverbial genitive.[citation needed]