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
Adessive case	adjacent location	Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Lithuanian \| Tlingit \| Tsez
Apudessive case	location next to something	Tsez
Inessive case	inside something	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Ossetic \| Tsez
Locative case	location	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	Tlingit
Temporal case	(used only with time expressions) specifying a time	Hungarian
Subessive case	under something	Tsez
Superessive case	on the surface	Hungarian \| Ossetic \| Tsez

Motion from

Case	Usage	Example
Ablative case	movement away from something	Azeri \| Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Inuktitut \| Latin \| Manchu \| Ossetic \| Sanskrit \| Tlingit \| Tsez \| Turkish
Delative case	movement from the surface	Hungarian
Egressive case	marking the beginning of a movement or time	Udmurt
Elative case	out of something	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian
Initiative case	starting point of an action	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	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Inari Sami \| Lithuanian \| Northern Sami \| Skolt Sami \| Tsez
Lative case	motion to location	Erzya \| Finnish \| Turkish
Sublative case	movement onto the surface	Hungarian \| Tsez
Terminative case	marking the end of a movement or time	Estonian \| Hungarian \| Manchu

Motion via

Case	Usage	Example
Perlative case	movement through or along	Tocharian A & B \| Warlpiri \| Yankunytjatjara
Prolative case	movement using a surface or way	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Tlingit
Prosecutive case	across or along	Kalaallisut
Vialis case	through or by	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
Absolutive case (1)	patient, experiencer	door and it opened> Basque
Absolutive case (2)	patient, involuntary experiencer	ice; he slipped> active languages
Absolutive case (3)	patient; experiencer; instrument	door with his hand and it opened> Inuktitut
Accusative case (1)	patient	door> Arabic \| Azeri \| Croatian \| Czech \| Erzya \| Esperanto \| Finnish \| German \| Hungarian \| Icelandic \| 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	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?	Belarusian \| Croatian \| Czech \| Georgian \| Lithuanian \| Manchu \| Polish \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovak \| Slovenian \| Tsez
Instrumental-comitative case	instrument, in company of something	Hungarian \| Tlingit
Instructive	means, answers question how?	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	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	her; I gave her the book; with her.> English \| Swedish \| Danish
Oblique case	all-round case; any situation except nominative	Hindi \| Telugu
Passive case or patient case	the subject of an intransitive verb or the logical complement of a transitive verb	languages of the Caucasus

Relation

Case	Usage	Example
Ablative case	all-round indirect case	Inuktitut \| Latin \| Lithuanian
Benefactive case	for, for the benefit of, intended for	Basque \| Quechua \| Telugu
Causal case	because, because of	Quechua \| Telugu
Causal-final case	efficient or final cause	Hungarian
Comitative case	in company of something	Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami \| Northern Sami \| Skolt Sami
Dative case	shows direction or receiver	Azeri \| Belarusian \| Croatian \| Czech \| Erzya \| Georgian \| German \| Hindi \| Hungarian \| Icelandic \| Inuktitut \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Manchu \| Ossetic \| Polish \| Romanian \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Slovak \| Slovenian \| Tsez
Dedative case (Respective)	related to	Quenya
Distributive case	distribution by piece	Finnish \| Hungarian \| Manchu
Distributive-temporal case	how often something happens	Finnish \| Hungarian
Genitive case	shows relationship, possession	Arabic \| Azeri \| Bangla (Bengali) \| Belarusian \| Croatian \| Czech \| Danish \| Dutch \| Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Georgian \| German \| Greek \| Icelandic \| Inari Sami \| Irish \| Latin \| Lithuanian \| Manchu \| Northern Sami \| Polish \| Romanian \| Russian \| Sanskrit \| Serbian \| Skolt Sami \| Slovak \| Slovenian \| Tsez
Possessed case	possession by something	Tlingit
Possessive case	direct possession of something	English \| Quenya
Sociative case	along with something, together with something	Hungarian \| Ossetic

Semantics

Case	Usage	Example	Found in
Disjunctive case	used when the subject is repeated for emphasis or to itemize a plural subject	French (only for pronouns)
Partitive case	used for amounts	Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami \| Russian \| Skolt Sami
Prepositional case	when certain prepositions precede the noun	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	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami \| Skolt Sami
Equative case	comparison with something	Tsez
Essive case	temporary state of being	Estonian \| Finnish \| Inari Sami \| Inuktitut \| Middle Egyptian \| Northern Sami \| Skolt Sami \| Tsez
Essive-formal case	marking a condition as a quality	Hungarian \| Manchu
Essive-modal case	marking a condition as a quality	Hungarian
Excessive case	marking a transition from a condition	Estonian \| Finnish
Formal case	marking a condition as a quality	as a house	Hungarian
Identical case	showing that something is identical	Manchu
Orientative case	oriented towards something	Manchu
Revertive case	backwards to something	Manchu
Translative case	change of a condition into another	Erzya \| Estonian \| Finnish \| Hungarian \| Manchu

List of grammatical cases: Encyclopedia BETA

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