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Categories: Grammatical cases | Lists

List of grammatical cases

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

Contents

1 Place and Time

1.1 Location
1.2 Motion
1.3 Chart for review for the basic cases

2 Morphosyntactic alignment

3 Relation

4 Semantics

5 State

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 \| Hungarian \| Lithuanian
Inessive case	inside something	inside the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian
Locative case	location	at/on/in the house	Belarusian \| Czech \| Hungarian (only for some traditional town names) \| Inari Sami \| Klingon \| Latvian \| Lithuanian \| Northern Sami \| Polish \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovakian
Temporal case	(used only with time expressions) specifying a time	at seven	Hungarian
Superessive case	on the surface	on (top of) the house	Hungarian

Motion

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Ablative case	movement away from something	away from the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Inuktitut \| Sanskrit
Allative case	in Hungarian and in Finnish: movement to (the adjacency of) something in Finnish: movement onto something	to the house onto the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Lithuanian
Delative case	movement from the surface	from (the top of) the house	Hungarian
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 \| Finnish \| Hungarian
Illative case	movement into something	into the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Inari Sami \| Lithuanian \| Northern Sami
Lative case	motion to location	to/into the house	Erzya \| Finnish
Prolative case	movement using a surface or way	by way of/through the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish
Prosecutive case	across or along	along the road	Kalaallisut
Sublative case	movement onto the surface	on(to) the house	Hungarian
Terminative case	marking the end of a movement or time	as far as the house	Estonian \| Hungarian
Vialis case	through or by	by way of the house, using the house	Inuktitut

Chart for review for the basic cases

	interior	surface	adjacency
from	Elative case	Delative case	Ablative case
at/in	Inessive case	Superessive case	Adessive case
(in)to	Illative case	Sublative case	Allative case

Morphosyntactic alignment

For meanings of the terms agent, patient, experiencer, and instrument, see theta role.

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Absolutive case (1)	patient, experiencer	he pushed the door and it opened	Basque
Absolutive case (2)	patient, involuntary experiencer	she crossed the ice; he slipped	nominative-absolutive languages
Absolutive case (3)	patient; experiencer; instrument	he pushed the door with his hand and it opened	Inuktitut
Accusative case (1)	patient	she opened the door	Czech \| Erzya \| Esperanto \| Finnish \| German \| Hungarian \| Inari Sami \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Northern Sami \| Polish \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovakian
Accusative case (2)	direct object of a transitive verb; made from; about; for a time	I see her	Inuktitut
Ergative case	agent	he pushed the door and it opened	Basque \| Chechen \| Samoan
Ergative-genitive case	agent, possession	he pushed the door and it opened; her dog	Inuktitut
Instrumental/Instructive case	instrument	by means of the house	Belarusian \| Czech \| Finnish \| Lithuanian \| Polish \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovakian
Instrumental-comitative case	instrument, in company of something	with the house	Hungarian
Nominative case (1)	agent	he pushed the door and it opened	nominative-accusative languages
Nominative case (2)	agent; voluntary experiencer	he pushed the door and it opened; she paused	nominative-absolutive languages
Objective case	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
Oblique case	all-round case; any situation except nominative	concerning the house	Hindi
Passive case or patient case	the subject of an intransitive verb or the logical complement of a transitive verb	The door opened	languages of the Caucasus

Relation

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Ablative case	all-round indirect case	concerning the house	Inuktitut \| Latin \| Lithuanian
Benefactive case	for, for the benefit of, intended for	for the house	Basque \| Quechua
Causal case	because, because of	because of the house	Quechua
Causal-final case	efficient or final cause	for a house	Hungarian
Comitative case	in company of something	with the house	Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami \| Northern Sami
Dative case	shows direction or receiver	for/to the house	Belarusian \| Czech \| Erzya \| German \| Hindi \| Hungarian \| Inuktitut \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Polish \| Romanian \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovakian
Dedative case (Respective)	related to	related to the house	Quenya
Distributive case	distribution by piece	per house	Finnish \| Hungarian
Distributive-temporal case	how often something happens	daily; on Sundays	Hungarian
Genitive case	shows relationship, possession	of the house	Belarusian \| Czech \| Dutch \| Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| German \| Greek \| Inari Sami \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Northern Sami \| Polish \| Romanian \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovakian \| Swedish
Possessive case	direct possession of something	owned by the house	English \| Quenya
Sociative case	along with something, together with something	with the house	Hungarian

Semantics

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Disjunctive case	used when the subject is repeated for emphasis or to itemize a plural subject	the house and the car, they're both here	French (only for pronouns)
Partitive case	used for amounts	three (of the) houses	Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami
Prepositional case	when a preposition precedes the noun	in/on/by/with the house	Russian
Vocative case	used for addressing someone, with or without a preposition	Hey, house! O house! House!	Arabic \| Belarusian (rare) \| Czech \| Greek \| Hindi \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Polish \| Romanian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian

State

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Abessive case	the lack of something	without the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami
Essive case	temporary state of being	as the house	Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami \| Inuktitut \| Middle Egyptian \| Northern Sami
Essive-formal case	marking a condition as a quality	as a house	Hungarian
Essive-modal case	marking a condition as a quality	as a house	Hungarian
Excessive case	marking a transition from a condition	from as being a house	Estonian \| Finnish
Translative case	change of a condition into another	(becoming) into a house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian