Grammatical case facts for kids

Imagine words like nouns and pronouns are actors in a play. A grammatical case tells us what role each word is playing in a sentence. For example, is it the one doing the action, or the one receiving the action? In many languages, words change their form (often by adding different endings) to show these roles.

In English, we mostly see this with personal pronouns. You say "I see them" (I is the one doing the seeing). But you say "They see me" (me is the one being seen). I and me are different forms of the same word, showing different roles. English has three main cases for pronouns:

• The subjective case (like I, he, we) for the word doing the action.
• The objective case (like me, him, us) for the word receiving the action.
• The possessive case (like my, mine, his) to show ownership.

Languages like Latin, Russian, and Sanskrit have many more cases. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives all change their endings to show their role. Some languages, like Hungarian, have a huge number of cases, sometimes 18 or more!

The Story of Grammatical Cases

People have been thinking about how words work for a very long time. The ancient Greeks were some of the first to notice how words change their forms. Philosophers called the Stoics and later scholars at the Library of Alexandria started to group these word forms together.

A very important book called The Art of Grammar was written by Dionysius Thrax around the 2nd century BCE. This book was one of the first true grammars. It helped define what cases are and how they structure a language like Ancient Greek.

Where the Word "Case" Comes From

The English word "case" comes from the Latin word casus. This Latin word means "to fall." It's a translation of the Greek word ptōsis, which also means "falling."

The idea was that all other forms of a word "fall away" from the basic form. The basic form is usually the one used for the subject of a sentence. This is also why we use the word "declension" for how nouns change. It comes from a Latin word meaning "to lean" or "to fall away."

Many other European languages use words similar to casus for grammatical case. For example, in French it's cas, and in German it's Kasus.

Cases in Indo-European Languages

On this sign in Russian, the city name Balakhna changes form. On the right, it's Balakhna (the subject form). On the front, it's Balakhne (the "to Balakhna" form). This shows how cases work!

Long ago, languages like Old English and Latin had many more cases than modern English. These languages are part of the Indo-European languages family. They used special endings on nouns, adjectives, and pronouns to show their roles. Today, many of these languages use prepositions (like "to," "from," "with") or word order instead.

Here are some common cases found in many languages:

These are general descriptions. The exact meaning of each case can be a bit different in various languages.

Modern English Cases

Modern English has mostly stopped using case endings on nouns. We use word order and prepositions instead. For example, "The chair is here" and "I own the chair" use the same word "chair." Its role changes based on where it is in the sentence.

However, English personal pronouns still have different forms for different cases:

• Nominative case (also called subjective): Used for the subject of a sentence. Examples: I, he, she, we.
• Oblique case (also called objective): Used for the direct or indirect object of a verb, or after a preposition. Examples: me, him, her, us.
• Genitive case (also called possessive): Used to show who owns something. Examples: my/mine, his, her/hers, our/ours.

The pronoun "who" also shows these cases: who (nominative), whom (oblique), and whose (genitive).

How Words Change: Declension

Declension is the process where nouns, pronouns, and adjectives change their endings to show their grammatical case. Languages with many cases have different groups of words that follow similar patterns of these changes. These groups are called declension classes.

For example, Latin has five main declension classes. Sanskrit has six. The way a word changes can depend on its gender, number (singular or plural), and other language rules.

Examples of Cases in Other Languages

Arabic

Modern Standard Arabic still uses grammatical cases. Here's how the word for "book" (kitāb) changes:

• kitābu (Nominative): The book is useful. (The book is the subject)
• kitāba (Accusative): The science book is big. (The book is the object)
• kitābi (Genitive): I went with the book. (Shows possession or relation, often with a preposition)

Many everyday Arabic dialects have simplified these cases.

German

In German, cases are mostly seen in the words that go with nouns, like "the" (articles) and adjectives. Nouns themselves have fewer ending changes.

Here's how "the sailor" changes:

• der Seemann (Nominative): The sailor is standing there. (Subject)
• des Seemann(e)s (Genitive): The name of the sailor is Otto. (Possession)
• dem Seemann(e) (Dative): I gave a present to the sailor. (Indirect object)
• den Seemann (Accusative): I saw the sailor. (Direct object)

Notice how the word for "the" (der, des, dem, den) changes a lot!

Latin

Latin is an ancient language with a rich case system. Here's how the word for "cook" (coquus) changes:

• coquus (Nominative): The cook is standing there. (Subject)
• coquī (Genitive): The cook's name is Claudius. (Possession)
• coquō (Dative): I gave a present to the cook. (Indirect object)
• coquum (Accusative): I saw the cook. (Direct object)
• coquō (Ablative): I am taller than the cook. (Used for various meanings like "by," "with," "from")
• coque (Vocative): I thank you, cook! (Directly addressing the cook)

Languages like French, Spanish, and Italian came from Latin. They have mostly lost these case endings, just like English.

Lithuanian

Lithuanian is a language with seven distinct cases. The word for "dog" (šuo) changes its ending for each case:

• Nominative: šuo – This is a dog.
• Genitive: šuns – Tom took the dog's bone.
• Dative: šuniui – He gave the bone to another dog.
• Accusative: šunį – He washed the dog.
• Instrumental: šunimi – He scared the cats with the dog.
• Locative: šunyje – We'll meet at the White Dog (Cafe).
• Vocative: šunie – He shouted: Hey, dog!

Russian

Russian also has a complex case system with six main cases. Here's how the word for "sailor" (моря́к, moryák) changes:

• моря́к (Nominative): The sailor is standing there. (Subject)
• морякá (Genitive): The sailor's son is an artist. (Possession)
• моряку́ (Dative): Someone gave a present to the sailor. (Indirect object)
• морякá (Accusative): I see the sailor. (Direct object)
• моряко́м (Instrumental): I have a friendship with the sailor. (Used for "with" or "by means of")
• о/на/в моряке́ (Prepositional): I think about the sailor. (Used with prepositions like "about," "on," "in")

How Cases Change Over Time

Languages are always changing! Over many years, case systems can become simpler. For example, Ancient Greek used to have more cases, but some merged together. In modern Hindi, there are now three main cases for nouns.

English is a great example of this change. It used to have many more cases, like Old English. But now, only our pronouns keep these different forms. For nouns, we use prepositions and word order to show their roles in a sentence.

Cases in Different Language Families

Many language families around the world use cases.

• The Finno-Ugric languages family, which includes Finnish and Estonian, has many cases. Finnish can have up to 15 cases!
• Turkic languages (like Turkish) and Mongolic languages also have complex case systems.
• The Tsez language, spoken in the Caucasus region, is known for having a very large number of cases – sometimes as many as 64!

The basic form of a word, the one you'd find in a dictionary, is usually its nominative case. This is the most common or "unmarked" form.

See also

In Spanish: Caso (gramática) para niños

• Declension
• List of grammatical cases
• Thematic relation