List of grammatical cases

This is a list of 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 \| Hungarian \| Lithuanian \| Tlingit \| Tsez
Apudessive case	location next to something	next to the house	Tsez
Inessive case	inside something	inside the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Ossetic \| Tsez
Locative case	location	at/on/in the house	Azeri \| Bangla (Bengali) \| Belarusian \| Croatian \| Czech \| Hungarian (only for some traditional town names) \| Inari Sami \| Latin \| Latvian \| Lithuanian \| Manchu \| Northern Sami \| Polish \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Skolt Sami \| Slovak \| Slovenian \| Telugu \| Tlingit \| Turkish (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
Temporal case	(used only with time expressions) specifying a time	at seven	Hungarian
Subessive case	under something	under/below the house	Tsez
Superessive case	on the surface	on (top of) the house	Hungarian \| Ossetic \| Tsez

Motion from

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Ablative case	movement away from something	away from the house	Azeri \| Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Inuktitut \| Latin \| Manchu \| Ossetic \| Sanskrit \| Tlingit \| Tsez \| Turkish
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
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 \| Hungarian \| Lithuanian \| Manchu \| Tlingit \| Tsez \| Turkish
Illative case	movement into something	into the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Inari Sami \| Lithuanian \| Northern Sami \| Skolt Sami \| Tsez
Lative case	motion to location	to/into the house	Erzya \| Finnish \| Turkish
Sublative case	movement onto the surface	on(to) the house	Hungarian \| Tsez
Terminative case	marking the end of a movement or time	as far as the house	Estonian \| Hungarian \| Manchu

Motion via

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Perlative case	movement through or along	through/along the house	Tocharian A & B \| Warlpiri \| Yankunytjatjara
Prolative case	movement using a surface or way	by way of/through the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Tlingit
Prosecutive case	across or along	along the road	Kalaallisut
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	active 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	Arabic \| Azeri \| Croatian \| Czech \| Erzya \| Esperanto \| Finnish \| German \| Hungarian \| Inari Sami \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Northern Sami \| Polish \| Romanian \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Skolt Sami \| Slovak \| Slovenian
Accusative case (2)	direct object of a transitive verb; made from; about; for a time	I see her	Inuktitut \| Persian \| Turkish
Ergative case	agent	he pushed the door and it opened	Basque \| Chechen \| Dyirbal \| Georgian \| Samoan \| Tlingit \| Tsez
Ergative-genitive case	agent, possession	he pushed the door and it opened; her dog	Inuktitut
Instrumental	instrument, answers question with which thing?	with the house	Belarusian \| Croatian \| Czech \| Georgian \| Lithuanian \| Manchu \| Polish \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovak \| Slovenian \| Tsez
Instrumental-comitative case	instrument, in company of something	with the house	Hungarian \| Tlingit
Instructive	means, answers question how?	by means of the house	Estonian (rare) \| Finnish
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 (1)	direct or indirect object of verb	I saw her; I gave her the book.	Bangla (Bengali)
Objective case (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
Oblique case	all-round case; any situation except nominative	concerning the house	Hindi \| Telugu
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 \| Telugu
Causal case	because, because of	because of the house	Quechua \| Telugu
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 \| Skolt Sami
Dative case	shows direction or receiver	for/to the house	Azeri \| Belarusian \| Croatian \| Czech \| Erzya \| Georgian \| German \| Hindi \| Hungarian \| Inuktitut \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Manchu \| Ossetic \| Polish \| Romanian \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovak \| Slovenian \| Tsez
Dedative case (Respective)	related to	related to the house	Quenya
Distributive case	distribution by piece	per house	Finnish \| Hungarian \| Manchu
Distributive-temporal case	how often something happens	daily; on Sundays	Finnish \| Hungarian
Genitive case	shows relationship, possession	of the house	Arabic \| Azeri \| Bangla (Bengali) \| Belarusian \| Croatian \| Czech \| Danish \| Dutch \| Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Georgian \| German \| Greek \| Inari Sami \| Irish \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Manchu \| Northern Sami \| Polish \| Romanian \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Skolt Sami \| Slovak \| Slovenian \| Tsez
Possessed case	possession by something	the house is owned by something	Tlingit
Possessive case	direct possession of something	owned by the house	English \| Quenya
Sociative case	along with something, together with something	with the house	Hungarian \| Ossetic

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 \| Russian \| Skolt Sami
Prepositional case	when certain prepositions precede the noun	in/on/about the house	Czech, Polish, Russian, Slovak (note: this case is called lokál in Czech and in Slovak, and miejscownik in Polish)
Vocative case	used for addressing someone, with or without a preposition	Hey, father! O father! Father!	Arabic \| Belarusian (rare) \| Croatian \| Czech \| Georgian \| Greek \| Hindi \| Irish \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Polish \| Romanian \| Russian (rare) \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Telugu \| Ukrainian

State

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Abessive case	the lack of something	without the house	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami \| Skolt Sami
Equative case	comparison with something	like the house	Tsez
Essive case	temporary state of being	as the house	Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami \| Inuktitut \| Middle Egyptian \| Northern Sami \| Skolt Sami \| Tsez
Essive-formal case	marking a condition as a quality	as a house	Hungarian \| Manchu
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
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	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 \| Hungarian \| Manchu

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