List of grammatical cases

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

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[1] | Hungarian | Lezgian | Lithuanian | Livonian | Tlingit | Tsez | Quechua
Apudessive case[2]	location next to something	next to the house	Tsez
Inessive case	inside something	inside the house	Basque | Erzya | Estonian | Lithuanian | Finnish[3] | 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[4] | 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
Subessive case	under something	under/below the house	Tsez
Superessive case	on the surface	on (top of) the house	Hungarian | Ossetic | Tsez | Finnish[5]

Motion from

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[4] | 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[5]
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[3] | Hungarian
Initiative case	starting point of an action	beginning from the house	Manchu

Motion to

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
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[1] | Hungarian | Inuktitut | Japanese[4] | Lithuanian | Manchu | Quechua | Tlingit | Tsez | Turkish | Tuvan | Uzbek
Illative case	movement into something	into the house	Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[3] | Hungarian | Inari Sami | Lithuanian | Northern Sami | Skolt Sami | Tsez | German | Esperanto
Lative case	movement to something	to/into the house	Erzya | Finnish[5] | Tsez | Turkish | German | Esperanto
Sublative case	movement onto the surface or below something	on(to) the house / under the house	Hungarian | Tsez | Finnish[5] | German
Terminative case	marking the end of a movement or time	as far as the house	Chuvash | Estonian | Hungarian | Manchu

Motion via

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)[5] | Tlingit | Greenlandic | Inuktitut

Time

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Temporal case	(used only with time expressions) specifying a time	E.g.: hétkor "at seven" or hét órakor "at seven o'clock"; éjfélkor "at midnight"; karácsonykor "at Christmas".	Hungarian | Finnish (rare)[5] |
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
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

Chart for review for the basic cases

	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

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[4] | 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[4]
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[6]
Instrumental	instrument, answers question using which thing?	with the house	Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Belarusian | Bosnian | Croatian | Czech | Evenki | Georgian | Japanese[4] | 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

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);[6] Inari Sami | Japanese[4] | 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[4] | 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[5]
Distributive-temporal case	how often something happens	daily; on Sundays	Hungarian; Finnish[5]
Genitive case	shows relationship, possession	of the house	Akkadian | Albanian | Arabic | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Azeri | Bengali | Belarusian | Bosnian | Chuvash | Croatian | Czech | Danish | Dutch | English | Erzya | Estonian | Finnish | Georgian | German | Greek | Hungarian | Icelandic | Inari Sami | Irish | Japanese[4] | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Manchu | Northern Sami | Norwegian | Persian[7] | 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 possession 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

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Partitive case	used for amounts	three (of the) houses	Estonian | Finnish[8] | 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

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Abessive case	the lack of something	without the house	Erzya | Estonian | Finnish[6] | 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[8] | 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[8] | Hungarian | Khanty | Manchu

References

1. Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Exterior local cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
2. Robert, Stéphane Robert (1999). Language Diversity and Cognitive Representations. p. 229.
3. Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Interior Local Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
4. Takahashi, Tarou; et al. (2010). A Japanese Grammar (in Japanese) (4 ed.). Japan: Hitsuji Shobou. p. 27. ISBN 978-4-89476-244-2.
5. Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish grammar - adverbial cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
6. Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - Means Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
7. Behrang QasemiZadeh, Saeed Rahimi, Persian in MULTEXT-East Framework, 5th International Conference on NLP, FinTAL 2006 Turku, Finland, August 23-25, 2006 Proceedings
8. Mäkinen, Panu. "Finnish Grammar - General Local Cases". users.jyu.fi. University of Jyväskylä. Retrieved 6 March 2015.