Locative is a case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases together with the lative and separative case.

The locative case in various languages

The locative case exists in many languages, e.g. the Altaic, Indo-European, and Uralic languages.

Indo-European languages

The locative case (called prepositional case in Russian) is found in:

• in modern Balto-Slavic languages
• some classical Indo-European languages, particularly Sanskrit and Latin
• in uncommon, archaic or literary use in certain modern Indian languages (such as Marathi in which a separate ablative case has however disappeared)

Turkish

The locative case exists in Turkish. For instance, in Turkish, elim means: my hand, and elimde means in my hand, so using de and da suffixes, the locative case is marked.

Finnish

In Finnish, there are two sets of local cases. Instead of the locative, the Finnish language has the inessive, which indicates a location inside of a place, and the adessive, which indicates a location outside of a place. The ancient Uralic locative is still used in some expressions in modern Finnish, e.g.

• ulkona 'outside'
• kotona 'at home'.

In the Finnish grammar, the locative is included in the essive case. Its ending is -na/-nä.

Inari Sami

In Inari Sami, the locative suffix is -st.

• kyeleest 'in the language'
• kieđast 'in the hand'.

Hungarian

In the Hungarian language, nine such cases exist, yet the name locative case refers to a form used only in a few town names instead of or along with the Inessive case or Superessive case. It is no longer productive.