This is a list of grammatical cases as they are used by various inflectional languages that have declension.
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| close | near/at/by the house | Estonian Finnish[1] Hungarian Lezgian Lithuanian Livonian Tlingit Tsez Kven | ||
| anterior | before the house | Dravidian languages[2] | ||
| Apudessive case[3] | adjacent | next to the house | Tsez | |
| inside | inside the house | Basque Erzya Estonian Lithuanian Finnish[4] Hungarian Ossetic Tsez Kven | ||
| between | between the houses | Limbu Quechua | ||
| location | at/on/in the house | Armenian (Eastern) Azeri Bengali Belarusian Bosnian Chuvash Croatian Czech Gujarati Hungarian Inari Sámi Inuktitut Japanese Kashmiri Latin (restricted) Latvian Lithuanian Manchu Northern Sámi Polish Quechua Russian Sanskrit Serbian Skolt Sámi Slovak Slovene Sorbian Tamil Telugu Tlingit Turkish Ukrainian Uzbek (Note: the case in Slavic languages termed the "locative case" in English is actually a prepositional case.) | ||
| Pergressive case | vicinity | in the vicinity of the house | Kamu | |
| contacting | touching the house | Tlingit Archi | ||
| posterior | after the house | Lezgian Agul | ||
| under | under/below the house | Tsez | ||
| on the surface | on (top of) the house | Hungarian Ossetic Tsez Finnish[5] |
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| near or inside | away from the house | Albanian Armenian (Eastern) Armenian (Western) Azeri Chuvash Erzya Estonian Evenki Finnish Hungarian Inuktitut Japanese Latin Manchu Ossetic Quechua Tamil[6] Sanskrit Tibetan Tlingit Tsez Turkish Uzbek Yukaghir | ||
| the vicinity | from near the house | Lezgian | ||
| the surface | from (the top of) the house | Hungarian Finnish | ||
| marking the beginning of a movement or time | beginning from the house | Udmurt | ||
| the interior | out of the house | Erzya Estonian Evenki Finnish Hungarian Kven | ||
| Initiative case | starting point of an action | beginning from the house | Manchu | |
| movement from behind | from behind the house | Lezgian |
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Hungarian and in Finnish: the adjacency in Estonian and in Finnish: the surface | to the house onto the house | Erzya Estonian Finnish Hungarian Inuktitut Japanese Kashmiri Lithuanian Manchu Tamil Tlingit Tsez Turkish Tuvan Uzbek Kven | ||
| inside | into the house | Erzya Estonian Finnish Hungarian Inari Sámi Lithuanian Northern Sámi Skolt Sámi Tamil Tsez Kven | ||
| near or inside | to/into the house | Erzya Finnish Quechua Tsez Turkish | ||
| the surface or below | on(to) the house/under the house | Hungarian Tsez Finnish | ||
| the top | on(to) the house/on top of the house | Northeast Caucasian languages | ||
| marking the end of a movement or time | as far as the house | Chuvash Estonian Hungarian Japanese Manchu Quechua |
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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) Tlingit Greenlandic Inuktitut |
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ablative case | specifying a time when and within | E.g.: Latin: eō tempore, "at that time"; Latin: paucīs hōrīs, "within a few hours". | Latin Armenian (Eastern) Armenian (Western) Finnish Turkish Kven | ||
| indicating duration of time known as the accusative of duration of time | E.g.: Latin: multos annos, "for many years"; Latin: ducentos annos, "for 200 years". | Turkish | |||
| used for specifying days and dates | E.g.: Finnish: maanantaina, "on Monday"; Finnish: kuudentena joulukuuta, "on the 6th of December". | Finnish Estonian Kven | |||
| Limitative case | specifying a deadline | E.g.: Japanese: 午後5時半までに (Japanese: Gogo go-ji han made-ni) "by 5:30 PM" | Japanese | ||
| specifying a time | E.g.: Hungarian: hétkor "at seven" or Hungarian: hét órakor "at seven o'clock"; Hungarian: éjfélkor "at midnight"; Hungarian: karácsonykor "at Christmas". | Hungarian Finnish (rare) |
| 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 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 | |
| Absolutive case (2) | patient, involuntary experiencer | he pushed the door and it opened; he slipped | active-stative 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 Sámi Japanese Latin Latvian Lithuanian Northern Sámi Polish Romanian Russian Sanskrit Serbian Skolt Sámi Slovak Slovene Ukrainian Georgian Yiddish |
| Accusative case (2) | direct object of a transitive verb; made from; about; for a time | I see her | Inuktitut Persian Turkish Serbo-Croatian |
| 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[7], Mongsen Ao | |
| Direct case | direct subject or object of a transitive or intransitive verb | I saw her; I gave her the book. | Scottish Gaelic[8] many languages with Austronesian Alignment. |
| agent; subject of a transitive verb | he pushed the door and it opened | Basque Chechen Dyirbal Georgian Kashmiri Samoan Tibetan Tlingit Tsez | |
| agent, possession | he pushed the door and it opened; her dog | Classic Maya Inuktitut | |
| means, answers question how? | by means of the house | Estonian (rare) Finnish[9] | |
| instrument, answers question using what? | with the house | Armenian (Eastern) Armenian (Western) Belarusian Bosnian Croatian Czech Evenki Georgian Japanese Kashmiri Latvian Lithuanian Manchu Polish Russian Sanskrit Serbian Slovak Slovene Tsez Ukrainian Yukaghir | |
| 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 and it opened | nominative–accusative languages (including marked 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 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. | |
| 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 |
| agent in a clause with a dative argument | he gave the book to him | Azoyú Tlapanec | |
| Case | Usage | Example | Found in | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| all-round indirect case | concerning the house | Albanian Armenian (Eastern) Armenian (Western) Sanskrit Inuktitut Kashmiri Latin Lithuanian Finnish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| avoiding or fear | avoiding the house | Warlpiri Yidiny | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| for, for the benefit of, intended for | for the house | Basque Quechua Telugu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| because of presence or absence | for want of a house | Ngiyambaa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| because, because of | because of the house | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| efficient or final cause | for a house | Chuvash Hungarian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| accompanied with | with the house | Dumi Ingush Estonian Finnish (rare) Inari Sámi Japanese Kashmiri Kven Northern Sámi Skolt Sámi Ossetic (only in Iron) Tibetan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| shows direction or recipient | for/to the house | Albanian Armenian (Eastern) Armenian (Western) Azeri Belarusian Bosnian Croatian Czech Erzya Faroese Georgian German Ancient Greek Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Inuktitut Japanese Kashmiri Latin Latvian Lithuanian Manchu Ossetic Polish Romanian Russian Sanskrit Scottish Gaelic Serbian Slovak Slovene Tsez Turkish Ukrainian Yiddish The case classically referred to as dative in Scottish Gaelic has shifted to, and is sometimes called, a prepositional case. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| distribution by piece | per house | Chuvash Hungarian Manchu Finnish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| frequency | daily; on Sundays | Hungarian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| shows generic relationship, generally ownership, but also composition, reference, description, etc. | of the house; the house's | Akkadian Albanian Arabic Armenian (Eastern) Armenian (Western) Azeri Bengali Belarusian Bosnian Chuvash Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Erzya Estonian Faroese Finnish Georgian German Greek Hungarian Icelandic Inari Sámi Irish Japanese Kashmiri Latin Latvian Lithuanian Manchu Northern Sámi Norwegian Persian[10] Polish Romanian Russian Sanskrit Scottish Gaelic Serbian Skolt Sámi Slovak Slovene Swedish Tibetan Tsez Turkish Ukrainian Kven | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| endowment | equipped with a house | Dumi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| passive possession | the house is owned | Tlingit | TurkishA sentence with possessed case noun always has to include a possessive case noun.|-| Possessive case || direct ownership || owned by the house| English Turkish|-| Privative case || lacking, without || without a house| Chuvash Kamu Martuthunira Wagiman|-| Semblative/Similative case || similarity, comparing || that tree is like a house| Wagiman|-| Sociative case || along with, together with || (together) with the house| Hungarian Ossetic|-|Substitutive case|| substituting, instead of || instead of him| Archi|-|}Semantics
State
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