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{{Short description|Categorization of nouns and modifiers by function}}
{{redirect-distinguish|Case system|Caste system}}{{use dmy dates|date=September 2025}}
{{More citations needed|date=November 2020}}
{{Grammatical categories}}

A '''grammatical case''' is a category of [[noun]]s and noun modifiers ([[determiner]]s, [[adjective]]s, [[participle]]s, and [[Numeral (linguistics)|numeral]]s) that corresponds to one or more potential [[grammatical function]]s for a [[Nominal group (functional grammar)|nominal group]] in a wording.<ref name=Frede-1994>{{cite journal |last=Frede |first=Michael |year=1994 |title=The Stoic notion of a grammatical case |journal=[[Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies]] |volume=39 |pages=12–24 |doi=10.1111/j.2041-5370.1994.tb00449.x |doi-access=free |jstor=43646836 }}</ref> In various languages, nominal groups consisting of a noun and its modifiers belong to one of a few such categories. For instance, in [[English language|English]], one says ''I see them'' and ''they see me'': the [[nominative case|nominative]] pronouns {{nobr|''I / they''}} represent the perceiver, and the [[accusative case|accusative]] pronouns ''me/them'' represent the phenomenon perceived. Here, nominative and accusative are cases, that is, categories of pronouns corresponding to the functions they have in representation.

English has largely lost its inflected case system but personal pronouns still have three cases, which are simplified forms of the nominative, accusative (including functions formerly handled by the [[Dative case|dative]]), and [[Genitive case|genitive]] cases. They are used with [[personal pronoun]]s: [[subjective case]] (I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who, whoever), [[objective case]] (me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom, whomever), and [[possessive case]] (my, mine; your, yours; his; her, hers; its; our, ours; their, theirs; whose; whosever).<ref>{{cite dictionary |title=Whosever |edition=online |quote=Definition of 'Whosever' by Merriam-Webster. |dictionary=Merriam-Webster |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whosever |url-status=live |access-date=2021-02-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613012826/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whosever |archive-date=2021-06-13 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Chambers Dictionary |edition=11th}}</ref> Forms such as ''I'', ''he'', and ''we'' are used for the [[Subject (grammar)|subject]] ("'''I''' kicked John"), and forms such as ''me'', ''him'', and ''us'' are used for the [[object (grammar)|object]] ("John kicked '''me'''").<!-- What about vestigial / archaic adverbs like “whither”, “thither”, and “hither”? -->

As a language evolves, cases can merge (for instance, in [[Ancient Greek]], the [[locative case]] merged with the dative), a phenomenon known as [[Syncretism (linguistics)|syncretism]].{{sfn|Clackson|2007|page=91}}

Languages such as [[Sanskrit]], [[Latin]], and [[Russian language|Russian]] have extensive case systems, with nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and determiners all inflecting (usually by means of different [[suffix]]es) to indicate their case. The number of cases differs between languages: For example, [[modern Standard Arabic]] and modern English have three, but only for pronouns; [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] is among those with the most, with its 18&nbsp;cases.

Commonly encountered cases include [[nominative]], [[accusative]], [[dative]] and [[genitive]]. A role that one of those languages marks by case is often marked in English with a [[preposition]]. For example, the English prepositional phrase ''with (his) foot'' (as in "John kicked the ball with his foot") might be rendered in Russian using a single noun in the [[instrumental case]], or in Ancient Greek as {{lang|grc|{{math|τῷ ποδί}}}} ({{math|{{grc-tr|τῷ ποδί}}}}, meaning "the foot") with both words – the definite article, and the noun {{lang|grc|{{math|πούς}}}} ({{math|{{grc-tr|πούς}}}}) "foot" – changing to dative form.

More formally, case has been defined as "a system of marking dependent nouns for the type of relationship they bear to their [[Head (linguistics)|heads]]".<ref name=Blake>{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Barry J. |year=2001 |title=Case |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=1, 89, 167–174 }}</ref>{{rp|p=1}} Cases should be distinguished from [[Thematic relation|thematic roles]] such as ''[[agent (grammar)|agent]]'' and ''[[patient (grammar)|patient]]''. They are often closely related, and in languages such as Latin, several thematic roles are realised by a somewhat fixed case for deponent verbs, but cases are a [[Morphology (linguistics)|syntagmatic / phrasal]] category, and thematic roles are the function of a syntagma / phrase in a larger structure. Languages having cases often exhibit [[free word order]], as thematic roles are not required to be marked by position in the sentence.

== History ==
It is widely accepted that the Ancient Greeks had a certain idea of the forms of a name in their own language. A fragment of [[Anacreon]] seems to prove this. Grammatical cases were first recognized by the [[Stoics]] and from some philosophers of the [[Peripatetic school]].<ref>[[#Robbins|Robbins]], pp. 27-33.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Michael |first=Ian |date=2010-06-10 |title=English Grammatical Categories: And the tradition to 1800 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521143264 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jPf2_DAQxhYC&q=the+stoics+transitive+verbs&pg=PA93 |via=Google }}</ref> The advancements of those philosophers were later employed by the philologists of the [[Library of Alexandria]].<ref name=Frede-1994/>

[[Aristotle]] recognized the gender of nouns and their related endings, but it was with the [[Stoics]] and, subsequently, with the grammarians of the [[Hellenistic period]] that a systematic and complete grouping of the morphology of nouns and their declensions in [[Ancient Greek]] was achieved. Of particular importance is the work of [[Dionysius Thrax]] ''[[The Art of Grammar]]'' (2nd century BCE), which represents the first true grammar in the modern sense ever written about an [[Indo-European language]] and its structure. In addition to the definition of case and its structure, this work contains most of today's grammatical elements and structures.<ref>[[#Robbins|Robbins]], pp. 27-33</ref>

== Etymology ==
The English word ''case'' used in this sense comes from the Latin {{lang|la|casus}}, which is derived from the verb {{wikt-lang|la|cado|cadere}}, "to fall", from the [[Proto-Indo-European root]] {{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|*ḱh₂d-}}.<ref>{{OEtymD|case}}</ref> The Latin word is a [[calque]] of the Greek   {{lang|grc|{{math|πτῶσις}}}},  {{grc-tr|{{math|πτῶσις}}}},  lit. "falling, fall".{{efn|
Latin   {{wikt-lang|la|cāsus}}   used to translate Greek   {{lang|grc|{{math|πτῶσις}}}}   literally "falling, fall". [[Aristotle]] applied   {{lang|grc|{{math|πτῶσις}}}}   to any derived, inflected, or extended form of the simple   {{math|{{wikt-lang|grc|ὄνομα}}}}   or   {{math|{{wikt-lang|grc|ῥῆμα}}}}   (i.e. the nominative of nouns, the present indicative of verbs), such as the oblique cases of nouns, the variations of adjectives due to gender and comparison, also the derived adverb (e.g.   {{lang|grc|{{math|δικαίως}}}}   was a   {{lang|grc|{{math|πτῶσις}}}}   of   {{math|{{wikt-lang|grc|δίκαιος}}}}&nbsp;), the other tenses and moods of the verb, including its interrogative form. The grammarians, following the [[Stoics]], restricted   {{lang|grc|{{math|πτῶσις}}}}   to nouns, and included the nominative under the designation.<ref>{{OED|case}}</ref>
}}
The sense is that all other cases are considered to have "fallen" away from the nominative. This imagery is also reflected in the word ''[[declension]]'', from Latin {{wikt-lang|la|declino|declinere}}, "to lean", from the PIE root {{wikt-lang|ine-x-proto|*ḱley-}}.

The equivalent to "case" in several other European languages also derives from ''casus'', including {{wikt-lang|fr|cas}} in French, {{wikt-lang|it|caso}} in Italian and {{wikt-lang|de|Kasus}} in German. The Russian word {{lang|ru|паде́ж}} (''padyézh'') is a calque from Greek and similarly contains a root meaning "fall", and the German {{wikt-lang|de|Fall}} and Czech {{wikt-lang|cs|pád}} simply mean "fall", and are used for both the concept of grammatical case and to refer to physical falls. The Dutch equivalent {{wikt-lang|nl|naamval}} translates as 'noun case', in which 'noun' has the older meaning of both 'adjective (noun)' and '(substantive) noun'. The Finnish equivalent is {{wikt-lang|fi|sija}}, whose main meaning is "position" or "place". 

Similar to Latin, [[Sanskrit nominals|Sanskrit]] uses the term विभक्ति ''(vibhakti)''<ref name=Vraja-2016>{{cite web |last=Kishor |first=Vraja |date=19 December 2016 |title=Whaddaya Tawki'na'bowt? Intro to Sanskrit noun use |website=Easy Sanskrit |url=https://easysanskrit.wordpress.com/2016/12/19/whaddaya-tawkinabowt-intro-to-sanskrit-noun-use/ |url-status=live |access-date=15 November 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007140339/https://easysanskrit.wordpress.com/2016/12/19/whaddaya-tawkinabowt-intro-to-sanskrit-noun-use/ |archive-date=7 October 2019 }}</ref> which may be interpreted as the specific or distinct "bendings" or "experiences" of a word, from the verb भुज् ''(bhuj)''<ref>{{cite web |title=भुज् |lang=sa |trans-title=to eat |website=Wiktionary |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AD%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%8D#Sanskrit |url-status=live |access-date=2024-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240911030745/https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%AD%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%8D#Sanskrit |archive-date=2024-09-11 }}</ref> and the prefix वि ''(vi)'',<ref>{{cite web |title=वि- |lang=sa |trans-title=Vi- |website=Wiktionary |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF- }}</ref> and names the individual cases using ordinal numbers.

== Indo-European languages ==
[[File:E7127-Balakhna-500-Years.jpg|thumb|On this sign in Russian memorializing an anniversary of the city of [[Balakhna]], the word ''Balakhna''  ({{Langx|ru|Балахн'''а'''}}) on the right is in the nominative case, whereas the word ''Balakhne'' ({{Langx|ru|Балахн'''е'''}}) is in the dative case in ''Balakhne 500 Let'' ('Balakhna is 500 years old', literally '[There is] 500 years to Balakhna') on the front of the sign. Furthermore, ''let'' is in the genitive (plural) case.]]

Although not very prominent in modern English, cases featured much more saliently in [[Old English language|Old English]] and other ancient [[Indo-European languages]], such as [[Latin]], [[Old Persian]], [[Ancient Greek]], and [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]]. Historically, the Indo-European languages had eight '''morphological cases''', although modern languages typically have fewer, using prepositions and word order to convey information that had previously been conveyed using distinct noun forms. Among modern languages, cases still feature prominently in most of the [[Balto-Slavic languages]] (except Macedonian and Bulgarian<ref>[https://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/slavic_languages.jsp Slavic Languages] on quickia.com {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091121155741/http://www.questia.com/library/encyclopedia/slavic_languages.jsp |date=2009-11-21}}</ref>), with most having six to eight cases, as well as [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[German language|German]], [[irish language|Irish]] and [[Modern Greek]], which have four. In German, cases are mostly marked on articles and adjectives, and less so on nouns. In Icelandic, articles, adjectives, personal names and nouns are all marked for case, making it the most conservative [[Germanic languages|Germanic language]].

The eight historical Indo-European cases are as follows, with examples either of the English case or of the English syntactic alternative to case:
{{clear}}
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Case
!Indicates
!Sample case words
!Sample sentence
!Interrogative
!Notes
|- 
|[[Nominative case|Nominative]] 
|[[Subject (grammar)|Subject]] of a [[finite verb]]
|we,<br>John,<br>dodo
|'''''We''' went to the store.''

'''''John''' is an avid reader.''

'''''The dodo''' are an extinct species.''
|Who or what?
|Corresponds to English's [[subject pronoun]]s.
|-
|[[Accusative case|Accusative]]
|[[Direct object]] of a [[transitive verb]]
|us,<br>for us,<br>the (object)
|''The clerk remembered '''us'''.''

''John ate '''the apple''' at the bus stop.''

''John waited '''for us''' at the parking lot.''

''Obey '''the law'''.''
|Whom or what?
|Corresponds to English's [[object pronoun]]s. Together with dative, it forms modern English's [[oblique case]].
|-
|[[Dative case|Dative]]
|[[Indirect object]] of a verb 
|us,<br>to us,<br>to the (object)
|''The clerk gave '''us''' a discount.''

''The clerk gave a discount '''to us'''.''

''According '''to the law''', this is illegal.''
|To whom or what?
||Corresponds to English's [[object pronoun]]s and preposition ''to'' and ''for'' constructions before the object, both often marked by a definite article ''the''. Together with accusative, it forms modern English's [[oblique case]].
|-
|[[Ablative case|Ablative]]
|Movement away from
|from us
|''The pigeon flew '''from us''' to a steeple.''
|Whence? From where/whom?
|
|-
|[[Genitive case|Genitive]]
|Possessor of another noun
|'s,

of (the)
|'''''John's''' book was on the table.''

''The pages '''of the book''' turned yellow.''

''The table is made '''out of wood'''.''
|Whose? From what or what of?
|Roughly corresponds to English's [[possessive]] (possessive determiners and pronouns) and preposition ''of'' construction.
|-
|[[Vocative case|Vocative]]
|Addressee
|John, 

O foolish dreamer, 

Madam Chair,
|'''''John''', are you all right?''

''Now, '''ladies and gentlemen''', we are proud to present…''

'''''O Canada''', we stand on guard for thee''
| –
|Indicates the addressee. Roughly corresponds to the formal, poetic or reverential use of "O" in English.
|-
|[[Locative case|Locative]]
|Location, either physical or temporal
|in Japan,

at the bus stop,

in the future
|''We live '''in Japan'''.''

''John is waiting for us '''at the bus stop'''.''

''We will see what will happen '''in the future'''.''
|Where or wherein? When?
|Roughly corresponds to English prepositions ''in'', ''on'', ''at'', and ''by'' and other less common prepositions.
|-
|[[Instrumental case|Instrumental]]
|A means or tool utilized in/while performing an action
|with a mop,

by hand,

through a tunnel
|''We wiped the floor '''with a mop'''.''

''This letter was written '''by hand'''.''

''The inmates escaped '''through a tunnel'''.''
|How? With what or using what? By what means?
|Corresponds to English prepositions ''by'', ''with'' and ''via'' as well as synonymous constructions such as ''using'', ''by use of'' and ''through''.
|}

All of the above are just rough descriptions; the precise distinctions vary significantly from language to language, and as such they are often more complex. Case is based fundamentally on changes to the noun to indicate the noun's role in the sentence – one of the defining features of so-called [[fusional languages]]. [[Old English]] was a fusional language, but Modern English does not work this way.

===Modern English===
Modern [[English language|English]] has largely abandoned the inflectional case system of [[Proto-Indo-European]] in favor of [[analytic language|analytic]] constructions. The [[personal pronoun]]s of Modern English retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class (a remnant of the more extensive [[Old English declension|case system of Old English]]). For other pronouns, and all nouns, adjectives, and articles, grammatical function is indicated only by [[word order]], by [[preposition]]s, and by the "[[Saxon genitive]]" (''-'s'').{{efn|The [[English possessive#Status of the possessive as a grammatical case|status of the possessive]] as an affix or a clitic is the subject of debate.<ref name="Hudson 2013">{{cite book |isbn=9789027273000 |date=2013 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |title=Morphosyntactic Categories and the Expression of Possession |editor1-last=Börjars |editor1-first=Kersti |editor2-last=Denison |editor2-first=David |editor1-link=David Denison |editor3-last=Scott |editor3-first=Alan |chapter=A cognitive analysis of John's hat |last1=Hudson |first1=Richard |author-link1=Richard Hudson (linguist) |pages=123–148}}</ref><ref name=" Börjars 2013">{{cite book |isbn=9789027273000 |date=2013 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |title=Morphosyntactic Categories and the Expression of Possession |editor1-last=Börjars |editor1-first=Kersti |editor2-last=Denison |editor2-first=David |author-link1=David Denison |editor3-last=Scott |editor3-first=Alan |chapter=Expression of Possession in English |last1=Börjars |first1=Kersti |last2=Denison |first2=David |editor1-link=David Denison |last3=Krajewski |first3=Grzegorz |last4=Scott |first4=Alan |pages=149–176}}</ref> It differs from the noun inflection of languages such as German, in that the genitive ending may attach to the last word of the phrase. To account for this, the possessive can be analysed, for instance as a clitic construction (an "enclitic postposition"<ref name="Quirk group genitive">{{cite book |quote=[the ''-s'' ending is] more appropriately described as an enclitic postposition' |page=[https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir/page/328 328] |last1=Quirk |first1=Randolph |author-link1=Randolph Quirk |last2=Greenbaum |first2=Sidney |author-link2=Sidney Greenbaum |last3=Leech |first3=Geoffrey |author-link3=Geoffrey Leech |last4=Svartvik |first4=Jan |year=1985 |title=A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language |location=Harlow |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-51734-9 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir/page/328}}</ref>) or as an inflection<ref name="Oxford English Grammar, Case">{{cite book |quote=In speech the genitive is signalled in singular nouns by an inflection that has the same pronunciation variants as for plural nouns in the common case |pages=109–110 |last1=Greenbaum |first1=Sidney |author-link=Sidney Greenbaum |title=The Oxford English Grammar |year=1996 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-861250-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |quote=In writing, the inflection of regular nouns is realized in the singular by apostrophe + ''s'' (''boy's''), and in the regular plural by the apostrophe following the plural ''s'' (''boys{{'}}'') |last1=Quirk |first1=Randolph |last2=Greenbaum |first2=Sidney |last3=Leech |first3=Geoffrey |last4=Svartik |first4=Jan |title=A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language |url=https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir|url-access=registration |publisher=Longman |year=1985 |page=[https://archive.org/details/comprehensivegra00quir/page/319 319]}}</ref> of the last word of a phrase ("edge inflection").<ref name="Huddleston phrasal genitive">{{cite book |quote=We conclude that both head and phrasal genitives involve case inflection. With head genitives it is always a noun that inflects, while the phrasal genitive can apply to words of most classes. |pages=479–481 |chapter=Nouns and noun phrases |last1=Payne |first1=John |last2=Huddleston |first2=Rodney |author-link2=Rodney Huddleston |editor1-last=Huddleston |editor1-first=Rodney |editor1-link=Rodney Huddleston |editor2-last=Pullum |editor2-first=Geoffrey |editor2-link=Geoffrey Pullum |title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |year=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge; New York |isbn=978-0-521-43146-0}}</ref>}}

Taken as a whole, [[English personal pronouns]] are typically said to have three morphological cases:

* The ''[[nominative case]]'' (''[[subjective pronouns]]'' such as ''I'', ''he'', ''she'', ''we''), used for the subject of a [[finite verb]] and sometimes for the [[complement (linguistics)|complement]] of a [[copula (linguistics)|copula]].
* The ''[[oblique case]]'' (''[[object pronoun]]s'' such as ''me'', ''him'', ''her'', ''us''), used for the direct or indirect [[object (grammar)|object]] of a verb, for the object of a preposition, for an absolute disjunct, and sometimes for the complement of a copula.
* The ''[[genitive case]]'' (''[[possessive pronouns]]'' such as ''my/mine'', ''his'', ''her/hers'', ''our/ours''), used for a grammatical possessor. This is not always considered to be a case; see {{slink|English possessive|Status of the possessive as a grammatical case}}.

Most English personal pronouns have five forms: the nominative case form, the oblique case form, a distinct ''[[reflexive pronoun|reflexive]]'' or ''intensive'' form (such as ''myself'', ''ourselves'') which is based upon the possessive determiner form but is coreferential to a preceding instance of nominative or oblique, and the possessive case forms, which include both a ''[[determiner (linguistics)|determiner]]'' form (such as ''my'', ''our'') and a predicatively used ''independent'' form (such as ''mine'', ''ours'') which is distinct (with two exceptions: the third person singular masculine ''he'' and the third person singular neuter ''it'', which use the same form for both determiner and independent [''his car'', ''it is his'']). The interrogative personal pronoun ''who'' exhibits the greatest diversity of forms within the modern English pronoun system, having definite nominative, oblique, and genitive forms (''who'', ''whom'', ''whose'') and equivalently-coordinating indefinite forms (''whoever'', ''whomever'', and ''whosever''). The pronoun "where" has a corresponding set of derived forms (''whither'', ''whence''), but they're considered archaic.

Although English ''pronouns'' can have subject and object forms (he/him, she/her), ''nouns'' show only a singular/plural and a possessive/non-possessive distinction (e.g. ''chair'', ''chairs'', ''chair's'', ''chairs'''); there is no manifest difference in the form of ''chair'' between "The chair is here." (subject) and "I own the chair." (direct object), a distinction made instead by word order and context.

== Hierarchy of cases ==
{{main article|Case hierarchy}}
Cases can be ranked in the following hierarchy, where a language that does not have a given case will tend not to have any cases to the right of the missing case:<ref name=Blake/>{{rp|p=89}}

: [[Nominative case|nominative]] ''or''  [[Absolutive case|absolutive]] → [[Accusative case|accusative]] ''or'' [[Ergative case|ergative]] → [[Genitive case|genitive]] → [[Dative case|dative]] → [[Locative case|locative]] ''or'' [[Prepositional case|prepositional]] → [[Ablative case|ablative]] ''and/or'' [[Instrumental case|instrumental]] → ''others''.

This is, however, only a general tendency. Many forms of [[Central German]], such as [[Colognian dialect|Colognian]] and [[Luxembourgish]], have a dative case but lack a genitive. In [[Irish language|Irish]] nouns, the nominative and accusative have fallen together, whereas the dative–locative, genitive, and vocative have remained separate. In many modern Indo-Aryan languages, the accusative, genitive, and dative have merged to an oblique case, but many of these languages still retain vocative, locative, and ablative cases. Old English had an instrumental case, but not a locative case.

== Case order ==
The traditional case order (nom-gen-dat-acc) was expressed for the first time in ''[[The Art of Grammar]]'' in the 2nd&nbsp;century BCE:
{{verse translation|[[s:el:Τέχνη Γραμματική|{{math|Πτώσεις ὀνομάτων}} {{math|εἰσὶ πέντε· ὀρθή, γενική,}} {{math|δοτική, αἰτιατική, κλητική.}}]]|There are five Cases, the right [nominative], the generic [genitive], the dative, the accusative, and the vocative.<ref>{{cite book |author=[[Dionysios Thrax]] |year=1874 |title=The grammar of Dionysios Thrax |translator-first=Tomas |translator-last=Davidson |location=St. Louis, MO |publisher=Studley |page=10 |url=https://archive.org/stream/grammarofdionysi00dionuoft#page/10/mode/1up |via=[[Internet Archive]] (archive.org) }}</ref>}}

[[Latin]] grammars, such as ''[[Ars grammatica]]'', followed the Greek tradition, but added the [[ablative case]] of Latin. Later other European languages also followed that Graeco-Roman tradition.

However, for some languages, such as Latin, due to case [[Syncretism (linguistics)|syncretism]] the order may be changed for convenience, where the accusative or the vocative cases are placed after the nominative and before the genitive. For example:
{|
|-
|
|
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Latin
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | {{wikt-lang|la|aqua|aqua, aquae}}<br />water {{abbr|f.|feminine}}
! colspan="2" | {{wikt-lang|la|bellum|bellum, bellī}}<br />war {{abbr|n.|neuter}}
|-
! Singular
! Plural
! Singular
! Plural
|-
! Nominative
| rowspan="2" | aqua || rowspan="2" | aquae
| rowspan="3" | bellum || rowspan="3" | bella
|-
! Vocative
|-
! Accusative
| aquam || aquās
|-
! Genitive
| rowspan="2" | aquae || aquārum
| bellī || bellōrum
|-
! Dative
| rowspan="2" | aquīs
| rowspan="2" | bellō || rowspan="2" | bellīs
|-
! Ablative
| aquā
|}
|}

For similar reasons, the customary order of the four cases in [[Icelandic grammar#Nouns|Icelandic]] is nominative–accusative–dative–genitive, as illustrated below:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" width=500px
! number || case || masculine || feminine || neuter || neuter
|-
! rowspan=4 | singular || {{abbr|nom.|nominative}} 
| hattur || rowspan="3" | borg || rowspan="2" | glas || rowspan="2" | gler
|-
! {{abbr|acc.|accusative}} 
| hatt 
|-
! {{abbr|dat.|dative}}
| hatti || glasi || gleri
|-
! {{abbr|gen.|genitive}}
| hatts || borgar || glass ||glers
|-
! rowspan=4 | plural || {{abbr|nom.|nominative}}
| hattar || rowspan="2" | borgir || rowspan="2" | glös || rowspan="2" | gler
|-
! {{abbr|acc.|accusative}}
| hatta 
|-
! {{abbr|dat.|dative}}
| höttum || borgum || glösum ||gler(j)um
|-
! {{abbr|gen.|genitive}}
| hatta || borga || glasa || gler(j)a
|}

[[Sanskrit]] similarly arranges cases in the order nominative-accusative-instrumental-dative-ablative-genitive-locative-vocative. The cases are individually named as the "first," "second," "third", and so on.<ref name=Vraja-2016/> For example, a common grammatical construction is called the सति सप्तमी (''Sati Saptami'')<ref>{{cite report |first=Chitrapur |last=Math |date=2002–2016 |section=Lesson&nbsp;71 – The locative and genitive absolutes |series=Month 19 – Step by step Sanskrit learning programme |title=Sati Saptami |pages=486–505 |website=chitrapurmath.net |type=online language course |section-url=https://archive.org/details/SatiSaptami/ |via=[[Internet Archive]] (archive.org) }}</ref> or "The Good Seventh" because it uses the locative, which is the seventh case, in a fashion similar to the use of "Upon" in sequential English phrases. (E.g. Upon their arrival, the two were immediately accosted by creditors.)

== Case concord systems ==
In the most common<ref name=Blake/> case concord system, only the head-word (the noun) in a phrase is marked for case. This system appears in many [[Papuan languages]] as well as in [[Turkic languages|Turkic]], [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], [[Quechua language|Quechua]], [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]], [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]], and other languages. In [[Basque language|Basque]] and various [[Amazonian languages|Amazonian]] and [[Australian languages]], only the phrase-final word (not necessarily the noun) is marked for case. In many [[Indo-European language|Indo-European]], [[Finnic languages|Finnic]], and [[Semitic languages]], case is marked on the noun, the determiner, and usually the adjective. Other systems are less common. In some languages, there is [[Suffixaufnahme|double-marking]] of a word as both genitive (to indicate semantic role) and another case such as accusative (to establish concord with the head noun).<ref>{{cite book |last=Malchukov |first=Andrej |year=2010 |chapter="Quirky" case: Rare phenomena in case-marking and their implications for a theory of typological distributions |title=Rethinking Universals: How rarities affect linguistic theory |pages=139–168 |doi=10.1515/9783110220933.139 |isbn=978-3-11-022092-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uHD8qnINQlcC |via=Google |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Declension paradigms ==
{{main|Declension}}

Declension is the process or result of altering nouns to the correct grammatical cases. Languages with rich nominal inflection (using grammatical cases for many purposes) typically have a number of identifiable declension classes, or groups of nouns with a similar pattern of case inflection or declension. Sanskrit has six declension classes, whereas Latin is traditionally considered to have [[Latin declension|five]], and Ancient Greek [[Ancient Greek grammar#Declensions|three]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Frank |last=Beetham |year=2007 |title=Learning Greek with Plato |place=Bristol, UK |publisher=Phoenix Press }}</ref> For example, Slovak has [[Slovak declension|fifteen noun declension classes]], five for each gender (the number may vary depending on which paradigms are counted or omitted, this mainly concerns those that modify declension of foreign words; refer to article).

In Indo-European languages, declension patterns may depend on a variety of factors, such as [[grammatical gender|gender]], [[grammatical number|number]], phonological environment, and irregular historical factors. Pronouns sometimes have separate paradigms. In some languages, particularly [[Slavic languages]], a case may contain different groups of endings depending on whether the word is a [[noun]] or an [[adjective]]. A single case may contain many different endings, some of which may even be derived from different roots. For example, in Polish, the genitive case has ''-a, -u, -ów, -i/-y, -e-'' for nouns, and ''-ego, -ej, -ich/-ych'' for adjectives. To a lesser extent, a noun's [[Masculine personal|animacy or humanness]] may add another layer of complexity. For example, in Russian:

{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=2
| Кот ловит мышей
| Kot-∅ lóvit myshéy.
| cat-NOM.AN. catches mice
| (The) cat catches mice.}}

{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=2
| Столб держит крышу
| Stolb-∅ dérzhit krýshu.
| pillar-NOM.INAN holds roof
| (The) pillar holds a/the roof)}}

vs.

{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=2
| Пётр гладит кота
| Pyotr gládit kot-á
| Peter strokes cat-ACC.AN
| Peter strokes a/the cat}}

and

{{fs interlinear|lang=ru|indent=2
| Пётр ломает столб
| Pyotr lomáyet stolb-∅
| Peter breaks pillar-ACC.INAN
| Peter breaks a/the pillar}}

== Examples ==

=== Arabic ===
An example of a Standard [[ʾIʿrab|Arabic case inflection]] is given below, using the singular forms of the Arabic term for "book" {{lang|ar|كِتَاب}} {{translit|ar|ALA|kitāb}}:
* {{lang|ar|كِتَابُ}} {{translit|ar|ALA|kitāb'''u'''}} ([[Nominative case|Nominative]]): {{lang|ar|الكِتَابُ مُفِيد}} {{translit|ar|ALA|al-kitāb'''u''' mufīd}} – (the book is useful)
* {{lang|ar|كِتَابَ}} {{translit|ar|ALA|kitāb'''a'''}} ([[Accusative case|Accusative]]): {{lang|ar|إنَّ كِتَابَ العُلُومِ كَبِير}} {{translit|ar|ALA|ʔinna kitāb'''a''' al-ʕulūmi kabīr}} – (the science book is big)
* {{lang|ar|كِتَابِ}} {{translit|ar|ALA|kitāb'''i'''}}  ([[Genitive case|Genitive]]): {{lang|ar|ذَهَبْتُ بِالكِتَابِ}} {{translit|ar|ALA|ḏahabtu bil-kitāb'''i'''}} – (I went with the book)
The modern [[Varieties of Arabic|Arabic colloquial dialects]] have abandoned the grammatical cases of [[Classical Arabic]], and they are only used nowadays in [[Modern Standard Arabic]]. Standard Arabic is the only living [[Semitic languages|Semitic language]] that preserved the complete [[Proto-Semitic language|Proto-Semitic]] grammatical cases and [[ʾIʿrab|declension (ʾIʿrab)]]. In some dialects of Northern and Central Saudi Arabia, one encounters the [[nunation]] in the -in form, e.g. {{lang|ar|دَرْبٍ}} {{translit|ar|ALA|darb'''in'''}}, "a road" (as in {{lang|ar|دَرْبٍ طويل}} {{translit|ar|ALA|darb'''in''' ṭiwīl}} vs. the common colloquial {{lang|ar|دَرْبْ طويل}} {{translit|ar|ALA|darb ṭawīl}}), apparently with the -i- of the former genitive, while -u < -un is preserved in some Yemenite colloquials when the noun is indeterminate (e.g. {{lang|ar|بَيْتُ}} {{translit|ar|ALA|bayt'''u'''}}, "a house", but al-bayt, "the house").<ref>{{cite book |last=Lipiński |first=Edward |year=1997 |title=Semitic Languages: Outline of a comparative grammar |publisher=Peeters Publishers / Tblisi State University Department of Oriental Studies |pages=264 |url=https://e-learning.tsu.ge/pluginfile.php/5865/mod_resource/content/0/Lipinski_-_Semitic_Languages._Outline_of_a_Comparative_Grammar.pdf |via=e-learning.tsu.ge }}</ref>

=== Australian Aboriginal languages ===
[[Australian Aboriginal languages|Australian languages]] represent a diversity of case paradigms in terms of their alignment (i.e. [[Nominative–accusative alignment|nominative-accusative]] vs. [[Ergative–absolutive alignment|ergative-absolutive]]) and the morpho-syntactic properties of case inflection including where/how many times across a noun phrase the case morphology will appear. For typical [[r-expression]] noun phrases, most Australian languages follow a basic ERG-ABS template with additional cases for peripheral arguments; however, many Australian languages, the function of case marking extends beyond the prototypical function of specifying the syntactic and semantic relation of an NP to a predicate.<ref name=Senge-2015>{{cite thesis |last=Senge |first=Chikako |year=2015 |title=A Grammar of Wanyjirra, a language of Northern Australia |degree=Ph.D. |publisher=The Australian National University |place=Canberra, CT, AU }}</ref> {{harvp|Dench|Evans|1988}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dench |first1=Alan |last2=Evans |first2=Nicholas |date=1988-06-01 |title=Multiple case-marking in Australian languages |journal=Australian Journal of Linguistics |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=1–47 |issn=0726-8602 |doi=10.1080/07268608808599390 }}</ref> use a five-part system for categorizing the functional roles of case marking in Australian languages. They are enumerated below as they appear in {{harvp|Senge|2015}}:<ref name=Senge-2015/>

# '''Relational''': a suffix which represents syntactic or semantic roles of a noun phrase in clauses.
# '''Adnominal''': a suffix which relates a noun phrase to another within the one noun phrase.
# '''Referential''': a suffix which attaches to a noun phrase in agreement with another noun phrase which represents one of the core arguments in the clause.
# '''Subordinating''': a suffix which attaches to elements of a subordinate clause. Its functions are: (i) specifying temporal or logical (typically, causal and purposive) relationships between two clauses (Temporal-subordinator); (ii) indicating coreferential relationships between arguments in the two clauses (Concord-subordinator).
# '''Derivational''': a suffix which attaches to a bare stem before other case suffixes and create a new lexical item.

To illustrate this paradigm in action, take the case-system of [[Wanyjirra language|Wanyjirra]] for whose description Senge invokes this system. Each of the case markers functions in the prototypical relational sense, but many extend into these additional functions:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" |Derivational
! rowspan="2" |Adnominal
! rowspan="2" |Relational
! rowspan="2" |Referential
! colspan="2" |Subordinator
|-
!C-SUB*
!T-SUB*
|-
![[Ergative case|Ergative]]
|
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|-
![[Dative case|Dative]]
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|-
![[Locative case|Locative]]
|
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|-
![[Allative case|Allative]]
|
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|-
!Purposive
|
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|-
![[Ablative case|Ablative]]
|
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|
|
|-
![[Elative case|Elative]]
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|-
![[Comitative case|Comitative]]
|
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|
|
|-
!Originative
|
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|
|
|-
!Proprietive
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|
|
|-
![[Privative case|Privative]]
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|<nowiki>+</nowiki>
|
|
|
|}
[[Wanyjirra language|Wanyjirra]] is an example of a language in which case marking occurs on all sub-constituents of the NP; see the following example in which the demonstrative, head, and quantifier of the noun phrase all receive ergative marking:

{{interlinear|indent=2
| yalu-nggu mawun-du gujarra-lu ngu{{=}}wula yunbarn-ana junba
| DIST-ERG man-ERG two-ERG REAL{{=}}3.AUG.SBJ sing-PRES corroboree.ABS
| Those two men are singing corroboree.}}

However, this is by no means always the case or even the norm for Australian languages. For many, case-affixes are considered special-clitics (i.e. phrasal-affixes, see Anderson 2005<ref>{{cite book|last =Anderson|first =Stephen|date =2005|title =Aspects of the Theory of Clitics|publisher =Oxford University Press|doi =10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279906.001.0001|isbn =978-0-19-927990-6|url =http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279906.001.0001/acprof-9780199279906|archive-date =2018-06-02|access-date =2020-07-01|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20180602060449/http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279906.001.0001/acprof-9780199279906|url-status =live}}</ref>) because they have a singular fixed position within the phrase. For [[Bardi language|Bardi]], the case marker usually appears on the first phrasal constituent<ref name=Bowern-2013>{{cite book |last=Bowern |first=Claire |year=2013 |title=A grammar of Bardi |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton|isbn=978-3-11-027818-7|location=Berlin|oclc=848086054}}</ref> while the opposite is the case for [[Wangkatja language|Wangkatja]] (i.e. the case marker is attracted to the rightmost edge of the phrase).<ref name=Shoulson-2019>{{cite report |last=Shoulson |first=Oliver |date=8 May 2019 |title=Case suffixes as special clitics in Wangkatja |lang=en |series=Field Methods – Bowern |doi=10.13140/RG.2.2.10204.00649 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342132255_Case_Suffixes_as_Special_Clitics_in_Wangkatja?channel=doi&linkId=5ee3b03f92851ce9e7dd51c3&showFulltext=true |via=researchgate.net |access-date=2025-09-10 |quote=An analysis of case-affixes in Wangkatja (an Australian Western Desert language) as special clitics. }}</ref> See the following examples respectively:

{{interlinear|indent=2
|top= '''Bardi'''<ref name=Bowern-2013/>
| Boordiji-nim niiwandi aamba i-na-m-boo-na aril
| fat-ERG tall man 3-TR-PST-poke-REM.PST fish
| The tall fat man speared a fish.}}

{{interlinear|indent=2
|top= '''Wangkatja'''<ref name=Shoulson-2019/><ref>{{cite book |title=Wangkatja dictionary |year=2008 |place=Port Hedland, WA, AU |publisher=Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre }}</ref>
| tjitji warta purlkana-ngka nyinarra-nyi
| child tree big-LOC sitting-?
| 'The child is sitting in the big tree.'}}

=== Basque ===
[[Basque language|Basque]] has the following cases, with examples given in the indefinite, definite singular, definite plural, and definite close plural of the word ''etxe'', "house", "home":

* [[Absolutive case|absolutive]] (''etxe, etxe'''a''', etxe'''ak''', etxe'''ok''''': "house, the / a house, (the / some) houses, these houses"),
* [[Ergative case|ergative]] (''etxe'''k''', etxe'''ak''', etxe'''ek''', etxe'''ok'''''),
* [[Dative case|dative]] (''etxe'''ri''', etxe'''ari''', etxe'''ei''', etxe'''oi'''''),
* [[Genitive case|genitive]] (''etxe'''ren''', etxe'''aren''', etxe'''en''', etxe'''on'''''),
* destinative (or benefactive: ''etxe'''rentzat''', etxe'''arentzat''', etxe'''entzat''', etxe'''ontzat'''''),
* motivative (or causal: ''etxe'''rengatik''', etxe'''arengatik''', etxe'''engatik''', etxe'''ongatik'''''),
* [[Sociative case|sociative]] (''etxe'''rekin''', etxe'''arekin''', etxe'''ekin''', etxe'''okin'''''),
* [[Instrumental case|instrumental]] (''etxe'''z''', etxe'''az''', etxe'''ez''', etxe'''oz'''''),
* [[Locative case|locative]] or inesive (''etxe'''tan''', etxe'''an''', etxe'''etan''', etxe'''otan'''''),
* [[Ablative case|ablative]] (''etxe'''tatik''', etxe'''tik''', exte'''etatik''', etxe'''otatik'''''),
* adlative (''etxe'''tara''', etxe'''ra''', etxe'''etara''', etxe'''otara'''''),
* directional adlative (''etxe'''tarantz''', etxe'''rantz''', etxe'''etarantz''', etxe'''otarantz'''''),
* terminative adlative (''etxe'''taraino''', etxe'''raino''', etxe'''etaraino''', etxe'''otaraino'''''),
* locative genitive (''etxe'''tako''', etxe'''ko''', etxe'''etako''', etxe'''otako'''''),
* [[Prolative case|prolative]] (etxe'''tzat'''), only in the indefinite grammatical number,
* [[Partitive case|partitive]] (etxe'''rik'''), only in the indefinite grammatical number, and
* [[Distributive case|distributive]] (''Bost liburu ikasle'''ko''' banatu dituzte'', "They have handed out five books to each student"), only in the indefinite grammatical number.

Some of them can be re-declined, even more than once, as if they were nouns (usually, from the genitive locative case), although they mainly work as noun modifiers before a noun clause:

* ''etxearena'' (that which is of the house), ''etxearenarekin'' (with the one which pertains to the house), 
* ''neskarentzako'' (which is for the girl), ''neskarentzakoan'' (in the one which is for the girl), 
* ''neskekiko'' (which is with the girls), ''neskekikoa'' (the one which is for the girls), 
* ''arazoarengatiko'' (which is because of the problem), ''arazoarengatikoak'' (the ones which are due to the problems), 
* ''zurezkoaz'' (by means of the wooden one), 
* ''etxeetakoaz'' (about the one which is in the houses), ''etxeetakoari'' (to the one which is in the houses), 
* ''etxetiko'' (which comes from the house), ''etxetikoa'' (the one which comes from the house), etxetikoari (to the one which comes from the house), 
* ''etxeetarako'' (which goes to the houses), ''etxeetarakoa'' (the one which goes to the houses), ''etxeetarakoaz'' (about the one which goes to the houses), 
* ''etxeranzko'' (which goes towards the house), ''etxeranzkoa'' (the one which goes to the house), ''etxeranzkoarena'' (the one which belongs to the one which goes to the house), 
* ''etxerainoko'' (which goes up to the house), ''etxerainokoa'' (the one which goes up to the house), ''etxerainokoarekin'' (with the one which goes up to the houses)...

=== German ===
In [[German language|German]], grammatical case is largely preserved in the articles and adjectives, but nouns have lost many of their original endings. Below is an example of case inflection in German using the masculine [[wikt:der#German|definite article]] and one of the German words for "sailor".

* {{lang|de|d'''er''' Seemann}} ([[nominative case|nominative]]) "the sailor" [as a subject] (e.g. ''Der Seemann steht da'' – the sailor is standing there)
* {{lang|de|d'''es''' Seemann'''(e)s'''}} ([[genitive case|genitive]]) "the sailor's / [of] the sailor" (e.g. {{lang|de|Der Name des Seemannes ist Otto}} – the name of the sailor is Otto)
* {{lang|de|d'''em''' Seemann'''(e)'''}} ([[dative case|dative]]) "[to/for] the sailor" [as an indirect object] (e.g. {{lang|de|Ich gab dem Seemann ein Geschenk}} – I gave a present to the sailor)
* {{lang|de|d'''en''' Seemann}} ([[accusative case|accusative]]) "the sailor" [as a direct object] (e.g. {{lang|de|Ich sah den Seemann}} – I saw the sailor)

An example with the feminine [[definite article]] with the German word for "woman".

* ''d'''ie''' Frau'' ([[Nominative case|nominative]]) "the woman" [as a subject] (e.g. ''Die Frau isst'' - the woman is eating)
* ''d'''er''' Frau'' ([[Genitive case|genitive]]) "the woman's / [of] the woman" (e.g. ''Die Katze der Frau ist weiß'' - the cat of the woman is white)
* ''d'''er''' Frau'' ([[Dative case|dative]]) "[to/for] the woman" [as an indirect object] (e.g. ''Ich gab der Frau ein Geschenk'' - I gave a present to the woman)
* ''d'''ie''' Frau'' ([[Accusative case|accusative]]) "the woman" [as a direct object] (e.g. ''Ich sah die Frau'' - I saw the woman)

An example with the neuter [[definite article]] with the German word for "book".

* ''d'''as''' Buch ([[Nominative case|nominative]])'' "the book" [as a subject] (e.g. ''Das Buch ist gut -'' the book is good)
* ''d'''es''' Buch'''(e)s''''' ([[Genitive case|genitive]]) "the book's/ [of] the book" (e.g. ''Die Seiten des Buchs sind grün'' - the pages of the book are green)
* ''d'''em''' Buch'''(e)''''' ([[Dative case|dative]]) "[to/for] the book" [as an indirect object] (e.g. ''Ich gab dem Buch einen Titel'' - I gave the book a title)
* ''d'''as''' Buch'' ([[Accusative case|accusative]]) "the book" [as a direct object] (e.g. ''Ich sah das Buch'' - I saw the book)

Proper names for cities have two [[Genitive case|genitive]] nouns:

* ''der Hauptbahnhof Berlin'''s''''' (primary [[Genitive case|genitive]]) "the main train station of Berlin"
* ''der Berlin'''er''' Hauptbahnhof'' (secondary [[Genitive case|genitive]]) "Berlin's main train station"

=== Hindi-Urdu ===
[[Hindustani language|Hindi]]-[[Urdu]] ([[Hindustani grammar|Hindustani]]) has three noun cases, the ''nominative,'' ''oblique'', and ''vocative'' cases. The vocative case is now obsolete (but still used in certain regions{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}}) and the oblique case doubles as the vocative case. The pronoun cases in Hindi-Urdu are the ''nominative'', ''ergative'', ''accusative, dative'', and two ''oblique'' cases.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Corbett|first1=Greville G.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=se05AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA35|title=Case and Grammatical Relations: Studies in honor of Bernard Comrie|last2=Noonan|first2=Michael|publisher=Jhn Benjamins Publishing Company|year=2008|isbn=9789027290182|location= Amsterdam/Philadelphia |pages=51}}</ref><ref name=Spencer-2005/> The case forms which do not exist for certain pronouns are constructed using primary postpositions (or other [[grammatical particle]]s) and the oblique case (shown in parentheses in the table below).

The other cases are constructed [[Preposition and postposition|adpositionally]] using the case-marking postpositions using the nouns and pronouns in their oblique cases. The oblique case is used exclusively with these 8 case-marking postpositions of Hindi-Urdu forming 10 grammatical cases, which are: ''ergative'' ने (ne), ''dative'' and ''accusative'' को (ko), ''instrumental'' and ''ablative'' से (se), ''genitive'' का (kā), ''inessive'' में (mẽ), ''adessive'' पे (pe), ''terminative'' तक (tak), ''semblative'' सा (sā).<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Butt|first1=M.|last2=King|first2=Tracy Holloway|title=Clause Structure in South Asian Languages|date=2004|chapter=The Status of Case|series=Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory|volume=61|pages=153–198|doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-2719-2_6|isbn=978-1-4020-2717-8|s2cid=115765466}}</ref>
{|
|valign="top"|
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |''Noun''<br>''cases''
! colspan="2" |''Masculine''
! colspan="2" |''Feminine''
|-
!''boy''
!''tree''
!''girl''
!''mother''
|-
| rowspan="3" |'''''Singular'''''
|[[Nominative case|Nominative]]
|<small>लड़का</small>
lar̥kā
| rowspan="4" |<small>पेड़</small>
per̥
| rowspan="3" |<small>लड़की</small>
lar̥kī
| rowspan="3" |<small>माता</small>
mātā
|-
|[[Oblique case|Oblique]]
| rowspan="3" |<small>लड़के</small>
lar̥ke
|-
|[[Vocative case|Vocative]]
|-
| rowspan="3" |'''''Plural'''''
|[[Nominative case|Nominative]]
|<small>लड़कियाँ</small>
lar̥kiyã
|<small>माताएँ</small>
mātaẽ
|-
|[[Oblique case|Oblique]]
| rowspan="2" |<small>लड़कों</small>
lar̥kõ
| rowspan="2" |<small>पेड़ों</small>
per̥õ
| rowspan="2" |<small>लड़कियों</small>
lar̥kiyõ
|<small>माताओं</small>
mātāõ
|-
|[[Vocative case|Vocative]]
|<small>माताओ</small>
mātāo
|}
|valign="top"|
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="3" |''Pronoun''<br>''cases''
! colspan="2" |''1st Person''
! colspan="3" |''2nd Person''
|-
! rowspan="2" |''Singular''
! rowspan="2" |''Plural''
!''Singular''
! colspan="2" |''Singular & Plural''
|-
!''Intimate''
!''Familiar''
!''Formal''
|-
|[[Nominative case|Nominative]]
|<small>मैं</small>
ma͠i
|<small>हम</small>
ham
|<small>तू</small>
tū
|<small>तुम</small>
tum
|<small>आप</small>
āp
|-
|[[Ergative case|Ergative]]
|<small>मैंने</small> 
ma͠ine
|<small>हमने</small> 
hamne
|<small>तूने</small> 
tūne
|<small>तुमने</small> 
tumne
|<small>आपने</small>
āpne
|-
|[[Accusative case|Accusative]]
| rowspan="2" |<small>मुझे</small>
mujhe
| rowspan="2" |<small>हमें</small>
hamẽ
| rowspan="2" |<small>तुझे</small>
tujhe
| rowspan="2" |<small>तुम्हें</small>
tumhẽ
| rowspan="2" |<small>(आपको)</small>
āpko
|-
|[[Dative case|Dative]]
|-
|[[Oblique case|Oblique]]
|<small>मुझ</small>
mujh
|<small>हम</small>
ham
|<small>तुझ</small>
tujh
|<small>तुम</small>
tum
|<small>आप</small>
āp
|-
|[[Oblique case|Oblique]]<br><small>(emphasised)</small>
|<small>मुझी</small>
mujhī
|<small>हमीं</small>
hamī̃
|<small>तुझी</small>
tujhī
|<small>तुम्हीं</small>
tumhī̃
|<small>(आप ही)</small>
āp hī
|}
|
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan="3" |''Pronoun''<br>''cases''
! colspan="4" |''Demonstrative''
! colspan="2" |''Relative''
! colspan="2" |''Interrogative''
|-
! colspan="2" |''Proximal''
! colspan="2" |''Distal''
! rowspan="2" |''Singular''
! rowspan="2" |''Plural''
! rowspan="2" |''Singular''
! rowspan="2" |''Plural''
|-
!''Singular''
!''Plural''
!''Singular''
!''Plural''
|-
|[[Nominative case|Nominative]]<br><small>(colloquial)</small>
| colspan="2" |<small>ये</small>
ye
| colspan="2" |<small>वो</small>

vo
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |<small>जो</small>
jo
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" |<small>कौन, क्या</small><sup>'''1'''</sup>
kaun, kyā
|-
|[[Nominative case|Nominative]]<br><small>(literary)</small>
|<small>यह</small>
yah
|<small>ये</small>
ye
|<small>वह</small>
vah
|<small>वे</small>
ve
|-
|[[Ergative case|Ergative]]
|<small>इसने</small> 
isne
|<small>इन्होंने</small>
inhõne
|<small>उसने</small>
usne
|<small>उन्होंने</small>
unhõne
|<small>जिसने</small>
jisne
|<small>जिन्होंने</small>
jinhõne
|<small>किसने</small>
kisne
|<small>किन्होंने</small>
kinhõne
|-
|[[Accusative case|Accusative]]
| rowspan="2" |<small>इसे</small>
ise
| rowspan="2" |<small>इन्हें</small>
inhẽ
| rowspan="2" |<small>उसे</small>
use
| rowspan="2" |<small>उन्हें</small>
unhẽ
| rowspan="2" |<small>जिसे</small>
jise
| rowspan="2" |<small>जिन्हें</small>
jinhẽ
| rowspan="2" |<small>किसे</small>
kise
| rowspan="2" |<small>किन्हें</small>
kinhẽ
|-
|[[Dative case|Dative]]
|-
|[[Oblique case|Oblique]]
|<small>इस</small>
is
|<small>इन</small>
in
|<small>उस</small>
us
|<small>उन</small>
un
|<small>जिस</small>
jis
|<small>जिन</small>
jin
|<small>किस</small>
kis
|<small>किन</small>
kin
|-
|[[Oblique case|Oblique]]<br><small>(emphasised)</small>
|<small>इसी</small>
isī
|<small>इन्हीं</small>
inhī̃
|<small>उसी</small>
usī
|<small>उन्हीं</small>
unhī̃
|<small>(जिस भी)</small>
jis bhī
|<small>(जिन भी)</small>
jin bhī
|<small>किसी</small>
kisī
|<small>किन्हीं</small>
kinhī̃
|}
|-
| colspan="3" |<sup>'''1'''</sup> ''कौन'' ''(kaun) is the animate interrogative pronoun and क्या (kyā) is the inanimate interrogative pronoun.''
|-
| colspan="3" |'''''Note:''' Hindi lacks 3rd person personal pronouns and to compensate the demonstrative pronouns are used as 3rd person personal pronouns.''
|}

=== Latin ===
An example of a [[Latin]] case inflection is given below, using the singular forms of the Latin term for "cook", which belongs to [[wikt:Appendix:Latin second declension|Latin's second declension class]].

* {{wikt-lang|la|coqu'''us'''}} ([[nominative case|nominative]]) "[the] cook" [as a subject] (e.g. {{lang|la|coquus ibī stat}} – the cook is standing there)
* {{lang|la|coqu'''ī'''}} ([[genitive case|genitive]]) "[the] cook's / [of the] cook" (e.g. {{lang|la|nōmen coquī Claudius est}} – the cook's name is Claudius)
* {{lang|la|coqu'''ō'''}} ([[dative case|dative]]) "[to/for the] cook" [as an indirect object] (e.g. {{lang|la|coquō dōnum dedī}} – I gave a present to the cook)
* {{lang|la|coqu'''um'''}} ([[accusative case|accusative]]) "[the] cook" [as a direct object] (e.g. {{lang|la|coquum vīdī}} – I saw the cook)
* {{lang|la|coqu'''ō'''}} ([[ablative case|ablative]]) "[by/with/from/in the] cook" [in various uses not covered by the above] (e.g. {{lang|la|sum altior coquō}} – I am taller than the cook: ablative of comparison)
* {{lang|la|coqu'''e'''}} ([[vocative case|vocative]]) "[you] the cook" [addressing the object] (e.g. {{lang|la|grātiās tibi agō, coque}} – I thank you, cook)

For some toponyms, a seventh case, the [[locative case|locative]], also exists, such as {{lang|la|Mediolān'''ī'''}} (in [[Milan|Mediolanum]]).

The [[Romance languages]] have largely abandoned or simplified the grammatical cases of Latin. Much like English, most Romance case markers survive only in pronouns.

=== Lithuanian ===
Typically in [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], only the inflection changes for the seven different grammatical cases:

* Nominative ({{wikt-lang|lt|vardininkas}}): {{lang|lt|šuo}} – {{lang|lt|Tai yra šuo}} – "This is a dog."
* Genitive ({{wikt-lang|lt|kilmininkas}}): {{lang|lt|šuns}} – {{lang|lt|Tomas paėmė šuns kaulą}} – "Tom took the dog's bone."
* Dative ({{wikt-lang|lt|naudininkas}}): {{lang|lt|šuniui}} – {{lang|lt|Jis davė kaulą kitam šuniui}} – "He gave the bone to another dog."
* Accusative ({{wikt-lang|lt|galininkas}}): {{lang|lt|šunį}} – {{lang|lt|Jis nuprausė šunį}} – "He washed the dog."
* Instrumental ({{wikt-lang|lt|įnagininkas}}): {{lang|lt|šunimi}} – {{lang|lt|Jis šunimi išgąsdino kates}} – He scared the cats with (using) the dog.
* Locative ({{wikt-lang|lt|vietininkas}}): {{lang|lt|šunyje}} – {{lang|lt|Susitiksime „Baltame šunyje“}} – "We'll meet at the White Dog (Cafe)."
* Vocative ({{wikt-lang|lt|šauksmininkas}}): {{lang|lt|šunie}} – {{lang|lt|Jis sušuko: Ei, šunie!}} – "He shouted: Hey, dog!"

=== Hungarian ===
[[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] declension is relatively simple with regular suffixes attached to the vast majority of nouns. The following table lists all of the cases used in Hungarian.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ '''{{wikt-lang|hu|ház|i=no}}''' – house, {{Wikt-lang|hu|kettő|i=no}} – two
|-
! Case
! Meaning
! Suffix
! Example
! Meaning of the example
|-
|[[Nominative case]]
| subject
| {{IPA|∅}}
|{{lang|hu|ház}}
| house (as a subject)
|-
|[[Accusative case]]
| direct object
| {{lang|hu|-ot/(-at)/-et/-öt/-t}}
|{{lang|hu|házat}}
| house (as an object)
|-
|[[Dative case]]
| indirect object
| {{lang|hu|-nak/-nek}}
|{{lang|hu|háznak}}
| to the house
|-
|[[Genitive case]]
|possession
|{{Lang|hu|-é}}
|{{Lang|hu|házé}}
|of the house (belonging to)
|-
|[[Instrumental-comitative case]]
| with
| {{lang|hu|-val/-vel}} ([[Assimilation (linguistics)|Assim.]])
|''házzal''
| with the house
|-
|[[Causal-final case]]
| for, for the purpose of
| {{lang|hu|-ért}}
| {{Lang|hu|házért}}
| for the house
|-
|[[Translative case]]
| into (used to show transformation)
| {{lang|hu|-vá/-vé}} ([[Assimilation (linguistics)|Assim.]])
|''házzá''
| [turn] into a house
|-
|[[Terminative case]]
| as far as, up to
| {{lang|hu|-ig}}
|{{lang|hu|házig}}
| as far as the house
|-
|[[Illative case]]
|into (location)
| {{Lang|hu|-ba/-be}}
|{{lang|hu|házba}}
|into the house
|-
|[[Adessive case]]
|at
|{{Lang|hu|-nál/-nél}}
|{{Lang|hu|háznál}}
|at the house
|-
|[[Ablative case]]
|from (away from)
|{{Lang|hu|-tól/-től}}
|{{Lang|hu|háztól}}
|(away) from the house
|-
|[[Elative case]]
|from (out of)
|{{Lang|hu|-ból/-ből}}
|{{Lang|hu|házból}}
|from the inside of the house
|-
|[[Sublative case]]
|onto (movement towards a thing)
|{{Lang|hu|-ra/-re}}
|{{Lang|hu|házra}}
|onto the house
|-
|[[Superessive case]]
|on/upon (static position)
|{{Lang|hu|-n/-on/-en/-ön}}
|{{Lang|hu|házon}}
|on top of the house
|-
|[[Delative case]]
|from (movement away from a thing)
|{{Lang|hu|-ról/-röl}}
|{{Lang|hu|házról}}
|from on top of the house, about the house
|-
|[[Temporal case]]
|at (used to indicate time or moment)
|{{Lang|hu|-kor}}
|{{Lang|hu|kettőkor}}
|at two (o'clock)
|-
|[[Sociative case]]
|with (archaic)
|''-stul/-stül''
|''házastul''
|with the house
|-
|[[Locative case]]
|in
|{{Lang|hu|-ban/-ben}}
|''házban''
|in the house, inside the house
|-
|Types of
|types or variants of a thing
|{{Lang|hu|-féle}}
|{{Lang|hu|kettőféle ház}}
|two types of houses
|}

=== Russian ===
{{main|Russian declension}}

An example of a [[Russian language|Russian]] case inflection is given below (with explicit stress marks), using the singular forms of the Russian term for "sailor", which belongs to Russian's first declension class.
* {{wikt-lang|ru|моря́к}} ([[nominative case|nominative]]) "[the] sailor" [as a subject] (e.g. {{lang|ru|Там стоит моряк}}: The sailor is standing there)
* {{lang|ru|моряк'''á'''}} ([[genitive case|genitive]]) "[the] sailor's / [of the] sailor" (e.g. {{lang|ru|Сын моряка — художник}}: The sailor's son is an artist)
* {{lang|ru|моряк'''у́'''}} ([[dative case|dative]]) "[to/for the] sailor" [as an indirect object] (e.g. {{lang|ru|Моряку подарили подарок}}: (They/Someone) gave a present to the sailor)
* {{lang|ru|моряк'''á'''}} ([[accusative case|accusative]]) "[the] sailor" [as a direct object] (e.g. {{lang|ru|Вижу моряка}}: (I) see the sailor)
* {{lang|ru|моряк'''о́м'''}} ([[Instrumental case|instrumental]]) "[with/by the] sailor" (e.g. {{lang|ru|Дружу с моряком}}: (I) have a friendship with the sailor)
* {{lang|ru|о/на/в моряк'''е́'''}} ([[Prepositional case|prepositional]]) "[about/on/in the] sailor" (e.g. {{lang|ru|Думаю о моряке}}: (I) think about the sailor)

Up to ten additional cases are identified by linguists, although today all of them are either incomplete (do not apply to all nouns or do not form full word paradigm with all combinations of gender and number) or degenerate (appear identical to one of the main six cases). The most recognized additional cases are locative ({{lang|ru|в лесу́, на мосту́, в слеза́х}}), partitive ({{lang|ru|ча́ю, са́хару, песку́}}), and two forms of vocative — old ({{lang|ru|Го́споди, Бо́же, о́тче}}) and neo-vocative ({{lang|ru|Маш, пап, ребя́т}}). Sometimes, so called count-form (for some countable nouns after numerals) is considered to be a sub-case.

=== Sanskrit ===
Grammatical case was analyzed extensively in [[Sanskrit]]. The grammarian [[Pāṇini]] identified six semantic [[Theta role|roles]] or ''kāraka'',<ref>Pieter Cornelis Verhagen, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5vmaX_JQzc4C&pg=PA281 Handbook of oriental studies: India. A history of Sanskrit grammatical literature in Tibet, Volume 2]'', BRILL, 2001, {{ISBN|90-04-11882-9}}, p. 281.</ref> which are related to the following eight Sanskrit cases in order:<ref>''[[s:Sanskrit Grammar/Chapter V#Nouns and Adjectives|W.D. Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar]]''</ref>
{|
|
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Case
! colspan="3" |Root word: वृक्ष (vṛ́kṣa) [Tree]
|-
!Singular
!Dual
!Plural
|-
| Kartṛ 
कर्तृ 
|[[nominative case|Nominative]]
|वृक्षः

vṛkṣaḥ
| rowspan="3" |वृक्षौ
vṛkṣau
| rowspan="2" |वृक्षाः / वृक्षासः¹
vṛkṣāḥ / vṛkṣāsaḥ¹
|-
|Sambodhana 
सम्बोधन
|[[Vocative case|Vocative]]
|वृक्ष

vṛkṣa
|-
| Karma
कर्म 
|[[Accusative case|Accusative]]
|वृक्षम्
vṛkṣam
|वृक्षान्
vṛkṣān
|-
| Karaṇa
करण 
|[[Instrumental case|Instrumental]]
|वृक्षेण

vṛkṣeṇa
| rowspan="3" |वृक्षाभ्याम्

vṛkṣābhyām
|वृक्षैः / वृक्षेभिः¹
vṛkṣaiḥ / vṛkṣebhiḥ¹
|-
| Sampradāna
सम्प्रदान 
|[[Dative case|Dative]]
|वृक्षाय
vṛkṣāya
| rowspan="2" |वृक्षेभ्यः
vṛkṣebhyaḥ
|-
| Apādāna
अपादान 
|[[Ablative case|Ablative]]
|वृक्षात्
vṛkṣāt
|-
| Sambandha
सम्बन्ध 
|[[Genitive case|Genitive]]
|वृक्षस्य
vṛkṣasya
| rowspan="2" |वृक्षयोः
vṛkṣayoḥ
|वृक्षाणाम्
vṛkṣāṇām
|-
| Adhikaraṇa 
अधिकरण 
|[[Locative case|Locative]]
|वृक्षे
vṛkṣe
|वृक्षेषु
vṛkṣeṣu
|}
|-
|'''¹''' Vedic
|}
For example, in the following sentence ''leaf'' is the agent (''kartā'', nominative case), ''tree'' is the source (''apādāna'', ablative case), and ''ground'' is the locus (''adhikaraṇa'', locative case). The [[Sanskrit nouns#Basic noun and adjective declension"|declensions]] are reflected in the morphemes ''-āt'', ''-am'', and ''-au'' respectively.

{{interlinear|indent=2
| vṛkṣ-āt parṇ-am bhūm-au patati
| {'''from''' the tree} {a leaf} {'''on''' the ground} falls
|}}

However, the cases may be deployed for other than the default thematic roles. A notable example is the passive construction. In the following sentence, ''Devadatta'' is the ''kartā'', but appears in the instrumental case, and ''rice'', the ''karman'', object, is in the nominative case (as subject of the verb). The [[Sanskrit nouns#Basic noun and adjective declension"|declensions]] are reflected in the morphemes ''-ena'' and ''-am''.

{{interlinear|indent=2
| devadatt-ena odan-am pacyate
| {'''by''' Devadatta} {the rice} {is cooked}
|}}

=== Tamil ===
The [[Tamil language|Tamil]] case system is analyzed in native and missionary grammars as consisting of a finite number of cases.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/public/h_sch_9a.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040328173005/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/public/h_sch_9a.pdf |archive-date=2004-03-28 |url-status=live |title=The Tamil Case System |publisher=Ccat.sas.upenn.edu |access-date=20 November 2014}}</ref><ref name="JSTOR600654">{{cite journal |title=Dravidian Case-Suffixes: Attempt at a Reconstruction |author=K. V. Zvelebil |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=92 |issue=2 |year=1972 |pages=272–276 |jstor=600654 |doi=10.2307/600654}}</ref> The usual treatment of Tamil case (Arden 1942)<ref>Arden, A.H. 1942, repr. 1969. ''A Progressive Grammar of the Tamil Language''. Madras: Christian Literature Society.</ref> is one in which there are seven cases: nominative (first case), accusative (second case), instrumental (third), dative (fourth), ablative (fifth), genitive (sixth), and locative (seventh). In traditional analyses, there is always a clear distinction made between post-positional morphemes and case endings. The vocative is sometimes given a place in the case system as an eighth case, but vocative forms do not participate in usual morphophonemic alternations and do not govern the use of any postpositions. Modern grammarians, however, argue that this eight-case classification is coarse and artificial<ref name="JSTOR600654" /> and that Tamil usage is best understood if each suffix or combination of suffixes is seen as marking a separate case.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Standardization or restandardization: The case for "Standard" Spoken Tamil |author=Harold F. Schiffman |journal=Language in Society |volume=27 |issue=3 |date=June 1998 |pages=359–385 |doi=10.1017/S0047404598003030}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" | Case !! colspan="2" | Suffixes!! Example: மன்னன் (mannan) [king]
|-
| First case ||[[nominative case|Nominative]]|| colspan="2" | —
| 
* மன்னன் (mannan)
|-
| Second case ||[[Accusative case|Accusative]]|| 
* ai
|
* ஐ 
| 
* மன்னனை (mannanai)
|-
| Third case ||[[Instrumental case|Instrumental]]|| 
* al
* udan, 
* kondu
|
* ஆல், உடன்
* கொண்டு 
| 
* மன்னனால் (mannanaal)
* மன்னனுடன் (mannanudan)
* மன்னனோடு (mannanOdu)
|-
| Fourth case || [[Dative case|Dative]] || 
* (u)kku
* poruttu
* aaga
|
* கு
* பொருட்டு
* ஆக 
| 
* மன்னனுக்கு (mannanukku)
* மன்னனின்  பொருட்டு (mannanin poruttu)
* மன்னனுக்காக (mannanukkaaga)
|-
| Fifth case || [[Ablative case|Ablative]]|| 
* in
* il
* ilrundu
|
* இன்
* இல்
* இருந்து 
| 
* மன்னனின் (mannanin)
* மன்னனில் (mannanil)
* மன்னனிலிருந்து (mannanilirundu)
|-
| Sixth case || [[Genitive case|Genitive]] || 
* athu
* udaiya
|
* அது
* உடைய 
| 
* மன்னனது (mannanadu)
* மன்னனுடைய (mannanudaiya)
|-
| Seventh case || [[Locative case|Locative]] || 
* il
* idam
* kaṇ (Old Tamil)
|
* இல்
* இடம்
* கண் (Old Tamil) 
| 
* வீட்டில் (vīṭṭil)
* மன்னனிடம் (mannanidam)
|-
|Eighth case ||[[Vocative case|Vocative]]||
* e
* a
|
* ஏ
* ஆ 
| 
* மன்னனே (mannanE)
* மன்னவா(mannavaa)
|}

=== Turkish ===
Modern Turkish has six cases (In Turkish ''İsmin Hâlleri'').
{|class="wikitable"
|-
!
!Nominative<br>What? Who?
! Accusative{{efn|Yaşamı sevmek, gazeteyi okumak, camları silmek, ödevini yapmak, sesini duymak, kapıyı açmak, üzümü toplamak. '''Not''': Saat yedi'''yi''' beş geçiyor. Üç'''ü''' çeyrek geçiyor.}}<br> What? Who?
! Dative{{efn|Saat dokuz'''a''' on var. On iki'''ye''' çeyrek var. Kaç liraya? Kaça?}}{{efn|Edatlardan –e ile bağlananlar: bize göre, bize karşı, her şeye karşın, kışa doğru, o konuya dair, size ait, yağmura karşın, iyiliklerine karşılık}}{{efn|''ben, sen''person pronouns: Ben-e> bana, sen-e>sana}}<br> To whom?
! Locative{{efn|Kesir sayları kurar: Yüzde yirmi faiz, dörtte bir elma, yüzde yetmiş devam, binde bir olasılık, yüzde on beş indirim.}}{{efn|-de+ek-fill örneği: –Yarın evde misiniz? – Yok, okuldayım. – Şimdi neredesiniz?  - Şu anda dersteyiz. Otur-mak-'''ta'''-dır (oturuyor), otur-mak-'''ta'''-y-dı (oturuyordu), otur-mak-'''ta'''-y-mış (oturuyormuş), otur-mak-'''ta'''-y-sa (oturuyorsa).}}<br> Where? Whom?
! Ablative{{efn|Some prepositions of name connects with ''–den'': –den önce, - den sonra, -den dolayı, - den beri, -den itibaren, -den başka vb. kahvaltıdan önce, yemekten sonra, yağmurdan dolayı, öğleden beri, bügünden itibaren, Ayça’dan başka.}}{{efn|-den+ek-fill (ait olma bildirir): Kimlerdensiniz? Alp te bizdendir. (Bizim takımdandır.) Bulgaristan göçmenlerindenmiş. Sizin öğrencilerinizdenim.}}<br> Where from? From whom? Why?
! Genitive<br> Whose? What's wrong?
|-
!Singular
|çiçe'''k''' / (a/the) flower (nom)
| çiçe'''ği''' / (a/the) flower (acc)
| çiçe'''ğe''' / to (a/the) flower
| çiçek'''te''' / in (a/the) flower
| çiçe'''kten''' / from (a/the) flower
| çiçe'''ğin''' / of (a/the) flower
|-
!Plural
|çiçe'''kler''' / (the) flowers (nom)
|çiçe'''kleri''' / (the) flowers (acc)
|çiçe'''klere''' / to (the) flowers
|çiçe'''klerde''' / in (the) flowers
|çiçe'''klerden''' / from (the) flowers
|çiçe'''klerin''' / of (the) flowers
|}

The accusative can exist only in the noun(whether it is derived from a verb or not). For example, "Arkadaşlar bize gel'''meyi''' düşünüyorlar." (Friends are thinking of com'''ing''' to us).

The dative can exist only in the noun (whether it is derived from a verb or not). For example, "Bol bol kitap oku'''maya''' çalışıyorum." (I try '''to read''' a lot of books).<ref>[http://turkilan.readymaker.ru/public/lessons/infinitive_suffix_mak_forms_mak_istemek_mayi_maya 2. accusative affix -mayı 3. dative affix -maya] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200704151553/http://turkilan.readymaker.ru/public/lessons/infinitive_suffix_mak_forms_mak_istemek_mayi_maya |date=2020-07-04 }};</ref>

== Evolution ==
As languages evolve, case systems change. In early Ancient Greek, for example, the genitive and ablative cases of given names became combined, giving five cases, rather than the six retained in Latin. In modern [[Hindi]], the cases have been reduced to three: a direct case (for subjects and direct objects) and [[oblique case]], and a [[vocative case]].<ref>{{cite book |first=R.S. |last=McGregor |year=1972 |title=Outline of Hindi Grammar |publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref><ref name=Spencer-2005>{{cite conference |last=Spencer |first=A. |year=2005 |title=Case in Hindi |conference=Lexical Functional Grammar 2005 Conference (LFG'05) |editor1-first=Miriam |editor1-last=Butt |editor2-first=Tracy Holloway |editor2-last=King |book-title=Proceedings of the LFG'05 Conference, University of Bergen |place=Palo Alto, CA |publisher=CSLI Publications |issn=1098-6782 |url=https://web.stanford.edu/group/cslipublications/cslipublications/LFG/10/pdfs/lfg05spencer.pdf |via=stanford.edu |url-status=live |access-date=2025-09-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240911002416/https://web.stanford.edu/group/cslipublications/cslipublications/LFG/10/pdfs/lfg05spencer.pdf |archive-date=2024-09-11 }}</ref> In English, apart from the pronouns discussed above, case has vanished altogether except for the possessive/non-possessive dichotomy in nouns.

The evolution of the treatment of case relationships can be circular.<ref name=Blake/>{{rp|pp=167–174}} [[Postposition]]s can become unstressed and sound like they are an unstressed syllable of a neighboring word. A postposition can thus merge into the stem of a head noun, developing various forms depending on the phonological shape of the stem. Affixes are subject to various phonological processes such as [[Assimilation (linguistics)|assimilation]], vowel centering to the [[schwa]], phoneme loss, and [[fusion (phonetics)|fusion]], and these processes can reduce or even eliminate the distinctions between cases. Languages can then compensate for the resulting loss of function by creating postpositions, thus coming full circle.

Recent experiments in agent-based modeling have shown how case systems can emerge and evolve in a population of language users.<ref>Remi van Trijp, "[http://www.remivantrijp.be/pubs/2012/vantrijp2012evolution.pdf The Evolution of Case Systems for Marking Event Structure] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618054951/http://www.remivantrijp.be/pubs/2012/vantrijp2012evolution.pdf |date=2013-06-18}}". In: Steels, Luc (Ed.), Experiments in Cultural Language Evolution, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2012, p. 169-205.</ref> The experiments demonstrate that language users may introduce new case markers to reduce the cognitive effort required for semantic interpretation, hence facilitating communication through language. Case markers then become generalized through analogical reasoning and reuse.

==Linguistic typology==

===Morphosyntactic alignment===
{{main|Morphosyntactic alignment}}

Languages are categorized into several case systems, based on their ''morphosyntactic alignment''—how they group verb [[agent (linguistics)|agents]] and [[patient (linguistics)|patients]] into cases:

* ''[[nominative–accusative language|Nominative–accusative]]'' (or simply ''accusative''): The argument (subject) of an intransitive verb is in the same case as the agent (subject) of a transitive verb; this case is then called the ''[[nominative case]]'', with the patient (direct object) of a transitive verb being in the ''[[accusative case]]''.
* ''[[ergative–absolutive language|Ergative–absolutive]]'' (or simply ''ergative''): The argument (subject) of an intransitive verb is in the same case as the patient (direct object) of a transitive verb; this case is then called the ''[[absolutive case]]'', with the agent (subject) of a transitive verb being in the ''[[ergative case]]''.
* ''[[ergative–accusative language|Ergative–accusative]]'' (or ''tripartite''): The argument (subject) of an intransitive verb is in its own case (the ''[[intransitive case]]''), separate from that of the agent (subject) or patient (direct object) of a transitive verb (which is in the ergative case or accusative case, respectively).
* ''[[active–stative language|Active–stative]]'' (or simply ''active''): The argument (subject) of an intransitive verb can be in one of two cases; if the argument is an ''agent'', as in "He ate", then it is in the same case as the agent (subject) of a transitive verb (sometimes called the ''agentive case''), and if it is a ''patient'', as in "He tripped", then it is in the same case as the patient (direct object) of a transitive verb (sometimes called the ''patientive case'').
* ''[[trigger language|Trigger]]'': One noun in a sentence is the topic or focus. This noun is in the [[trigger case]], and information elsewhere in the sentence (for example a [[verb]] [[affix]] in [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]]) specifies the role of the trigger. The trigger may be identified as the agent, patient, etc. Other nouns may be inflected for case, but the inflections are overloaded; for example, in Tagalog, the subject and object of a verb are both expressed in the [[genitive case]] when they are not in the trigger case.

The following are systems that some languages use to mark case instead of, or in addition to, declension:
* '''Positional''': Nouns are not inflected for case; the position of a noun in the sentence expresses its case.
* [[Adposition]]al: Nouns are accompanied by words that mark case.

===Language families===
*With a few exceptions, most languages in the [[Finno-Ugric languages|Finno-Ugric]] family make extensive use of cases. [[Finnish language|Finnish]] has 15 cases according to the traditional description (or up to 30 depending on the interpretation).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://users.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suomi/sijat/sijatadverbien.html |title=Finnish Grammar – Adverbial cases |publisher=Users.jyu.fi |access-date=15 September 2014 |archive-date=11 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511205833/http://users.jyu.fi/~pamakine/kieli/suomi/sijat/sijatadverbien.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, only 12 are commonly used in speech (see [[Finnish noun cases]] and [[Finnish locative system]]). [[Estonian language|Estonian]] has 14 (see [[Estonian locative system]]) and [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] has 18, both with additional archaic cases used for some words.
*[[Turkic languages|Turkic]], [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]], and [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic]] languages also exhibit complex case systems. Since the abovementioned languages, along with [[Korean language|Korean]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]], shared certain similarities, linguists proposed an [[Altaic languages|Altaic]] family and reconstructed its case system; although the hypothesis had been largely discredited.
*The [[Tsez language]], a [[Northeast Caucasian languages|Northeast Caucasian language]], has 64 cases.
*The original version of John Quijada's [[constructed language]] [[Ithkuil]] has 81 noun cases,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ithkuil.net/ithkuil-ch4-case.htm |title=A Philosophical Grammar of Ithkuil, a Constructed Language – Chapter 4: Case Morphology |publisher=Ithkuil.net |access-date=15 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090608003723/http://www.ithkuil.net/ithkuil-ch4-case.htm |archive-date=June 8, 2009}}</ref> and its descendant [[Ilaksh]] and Ithkuil after the 2011 revision both have 96 noun cases.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ithkuil.net/ilaksh/Chapter_4.html |title=Chapter 4 |access-date=15 September 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090312010557/http://ithkuil.net/ilaksh/Chapter_4.html |archive-date=March 12, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ithkuil.net/04_case.html |title=A Grammar of the Ithkuil Language – Chapter 4: Case Morphology |publisher=Ithkuil.net |access-date=15 September 2014 |archive-date=26 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226082350/http://www.ithkuil.net/04_case.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[lemma (morphology)|lemma]] form of words, which is the form chosen by convention as the canonical form of a word, is usually the most [[markedness|unmarked]] or basic case, which is typically the nominative, trigger, or absolutive case, whichever a language may have.

== See also ==
* [[Agreement (linguistics)]]
* [[Case hierarchy]]
* [[Declension]]
* [[Differential object marking]]
* [[Inflection]]
* [[List of grammatical cases]]
* [[Phi features]]
* [[Thematic relation]]
* [[Verbal case]]
* [[Voice (grammar)]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book |title=A Short History of Linguistics |author=H.R. Robbins |publisher=Longman |year=1967 |isbn=0582523974 |ref=Robbins |url=https://dn721500.ca.archive.org/0/items/ii8e888e87ewww/R.-H.-Robins-A-Short-History-of-Linguistics-Longman-Linguistics-Library-Addison-Wesley-Longman-1967.pdf}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===General references===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{cite book |author-link1=James Clackson |first1=James |last1=Clackson |date=2007 |isbn=9781139467346 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJDjNp6wODoC&pg=PA90 |title=Indo-European linguistics: an introduction |publisher=Cambridge University Press }}
* Ivan G. Iliev (2007) [https://www.scribd.com/doc/133271099/Ivan-G-Iliev-CASE-AND-VOCATIVENESS On the Nature of Grammatical Case ... (Case and Vocativeness)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625084306/https://www.scribd.com/doc/133271099/Ivan-G-Iliev-CASE-AND-VOCATIVENESS |date=2016-06-25 }}
{{Refend}}
* [http://www.ijors.net/issue7_1_2018/articles/iliev.html Iliev, Iv. The Russian Genitive of Negation and Its Japanese Counterpart. International Journal of Russian Studies. 1, 2018]

==External links==
{{Commons category|Grammatical cases}}
*[http://www.smg.surrey.ac.uk/features/morphosyntactic/case/ Grammatical Features Inventory] – [[Digital object identifier|DOI]]: 10.15126/SMG.18/1.04
*World Atlas of Language Structures Online
**[http://wals.info/chapter/28 Chapter 28: Case Syncretism]
**[http://wals.info/chapter/49 Chapter 49: Number of Cases]
**[http://wals.info/chapter/50 Chapter 50: Asymmetrical Case Marking]
**[http://wals.info/chapter/51 Chapter 51: Position of Case Affixes]
**[http://wals.info/chapter/98 Chapter 98: Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases]
**[http://wals.info/chapter/99 Chapter 99: Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns]

{{Grammatical cases}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Grammatical cases| ]]