# List of grammatical cases

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.

## Location and movement

Note: Most cases used for location and motion can be used for time as well.

### Location

| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
| Adessive case | close | near/at/by the house | Estonian | Finnish | Hungarian | Lezgian | Lithuanian | Livonian | Tlingit | Tsez | Kven |
| Antessive case | anterior | before the house | Dravidian languages |
| Apudessive case | adjacent | next to the house | Tsez |
| Inessive case | inside | inside the house | Basque | Erzya | Estonian | Lithuanian | Finnish | Hungarian | Ossetic | Tsez | Kven |
| Intrative case | between | between the houses | Limbu | Quechua |
| Locative case | 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 |
| Pertingent case | contacting | touching the house | Tlingit | Archi |
| Postessive case | posterior | after the house | Lezgian | Agul |
| Subessive case | under | under/below the house | Tsez |
| Superessive case | on the surface | on (top of) the house | Hungarian | Ossetic | Tsez | Finnish |

### Motion from

| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
| Ablative case | 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 | Sanskrit | Tibetan | Tlingit | Tsez | Turkish | Uzbek | Yukaghir |
| Adelative case | the vicinity | from near the house | Lezgian |
| Delative case | the surface | from (the top of) the house | Hungarian | Finnish |
| Egressive case | marking the beginning of a movement or time | beginning from the house | Udmurt |
| Elative case | the interior | out of the house | Erzya | Estonian | Evenki | Finnish | Hungarian | Kven |
| Initiative case | starting point of an action | beginning from the house | Manchu |
| Postelative case | movement from behind | from behind the house | Lezgian |

### Motion to

| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
| Allative case | 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 |
| Illative case | inside | into the house | Erzya | Estonian | Finnish | Hungarian | Inari Sámi | Lithuanian | Northern Sámi | Skolt Sámi | Tamil | Tsez | Kven |
| Lative case | near or inside | to/into the house | Erzya | Finnish | Quechua | Tsez | Turkish |
| Sublative case | the surface or below | on(to) the house/under the house | Hungarian | Tsez | Finnish |
| Superlative case | the top | on(to) the house/on top of the house | Northeast Caucasian languages: Bezhta | Hinuq | Tsez |
| Terminative case | marking the end of a movement or time | as far as the house | Chuvash | Estonian | Hungarian | Japanese | Manchu | Quechua |

### 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) | Tlingit | Greenlandic | Inuktitut |

### Time

| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
| Ablative case | specifying a time when and within | E.g.: eō tempore, "at that time"; paucīs hōrīs, "within a few hours". | Latin | Armenian (Eastern) | Armenian (Western) | Finnish | Turkish | Kven |
| 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 | Croatian | Russian | Turkish |
| Essive case | used for specifying days and dates | E.g.: maanantaina, "on Monday"; kuudentena joulukuuta, "on the 6th of December". | Finnish | Estonian | Kven |
| Limitative case | specifying a deadline | E.g.: 午後5時半までに (Gogo go-ji han made-ni) "by 5:30 PM" | Japanese |
| Temporal case | specifying a time | E.g.: hétkor "at seven" or hét órakor "at seven o'clock"; éjfélkor "at midnight"; karácsonykor "at Christmas". | Hungarian | Finnish (rare) |

### 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-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 |
| 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, Mongsen Ao |
| Direct case | direct subject or object of a transitive or intransitive verb | I saw her; I gave her the book. | Scottish Gaelic | many languages with Austronesian Alignment. |
| Ergative case | agent; subject of a transitive verb | he pushed the door and it opened | Basque | Chechen | Dyirbal | Georgian | Kashmiri | 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 |
| Instrumental | 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 |
| Instrumental-comitative case | 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. | 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 | Kashmiri | Latin | Lithuanian | Finnish |
| 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 |
| Caritative case | because of presence or absence | for want of a house | Ngiyambaa |
| 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 | accompanied with | with the house | Dumi | Ingush | Estonian | Finnish (rare) | Inari Sámi | Japanese | Kashmiri | Kven | Northern Sámi | Skolt Sámi | 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 | 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. |
| Distributive case | distribution by piece | per house | Chuvash | Hungarian | Manchu | Finnish |
| Distributive-temporal case | frequency | daily; on Sundays | Hungarian; Finnish |
| Genitive case | 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 | Polish | Romanian | Russian | Sanskrit | Scottish Gaelic | Serbian | Skolt Sámi | Slovak | Slovene | Swedish | Tibetan | Tsez | Turkish | Ukrainian | Kven |
| Ornative case | endowment | equipped with a house | Dumi; Hungarian |
| Possessed case | passive possession | the house is owned | Tlingit | Turkish ^† A 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

| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
| Partitive case | used for amounts | three (of the) houses | Estonian | Finnish | Inari Sámi | Russian | Skolt Sámi | Kven |
| Prepositional case | when 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, with or without a preposition | Hey, father! O father! Father! | Albanian (rare) | Belarusian (rare) | Bulgarian | Bosnian | Croatian | Czech | Georgian | Greek | Hindi | Irish | Japanese (literary or poetic) | Scottish Gaelic | Manx | Itelmen | Kashmiri | Ket | Latin | Latvian | Lithuanian | Macedonian | Nivkh | Polish | Romanian | Russian (rare) | Sanskrit | Scottish Gaelic | Serbian | Slovak (rare) | Telugu | Ukrainian | Nahuatl |

## State

| Case | Usage | Example | Found in |
| Abessive case | lacking | without the house | Erzya | Estonian | Finnish | Inari Sámi | Skolt Sámi | Quechua | Kven |
| Adverbial case | temporary state | as a house | Georgian | Udmurt | Finnic languages | Abkhaz |
| Comparative case | comparison | like the house | Dumi | Mari | Nivkh | Czech |
| Equative case | similarity | similar to the house | Greenlandic | Ossetic | Sumerian | Tlingit | Tsez |
| Essive case | temporary state of being | as the house | Estonian | Finnish | Inari Sámi | Inuktitut | Middle Egyptian | Northern Sámi | Skolt Sámi | 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 equality | being the house | Manchu |
| Orientative case | positive orientation | turned towards the house | Chukchi | Manchu |
| Revertive case | negative orientation | against the house | Manchu |
| Translative case | change of a condition into another | (turning) into a house | Erzya | Estonian | Finnish | Hungarian | Japanese | Khanty | Manchu | Kven |