Dative case

The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. The name is derived from the Latin dativus, meaning "appropriate to giving." The thing being given may be a tangible object—such as "a book" or "a pen"—or it may be an intangible abstraction, such as "an answer" or "help." The dative generally marks the indirect object of a verb, although in some instances, the dative is used for the direct object of a verb pertaining directly to an act of giving something.

Related Topics:
Grammatical case - Noun - Latin - Indirect object - Verb - Direct object

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In certain languages, the dative case has assimilated the functions of other now-extinct cases. Dative also marks possession in Classical Greek, which has lost the locative and instrumental cases. The dative assumed their functions. In Scottish Gaelic, the dative case is used by nouns following simple prepositions and the definite article. In Georgian, the dative case also marks the subject of the sentence in some verbs and some tenses. This is also called the dative construction.

Related Topics:
Possession - Classical Greek - Locative - Instrumental case - Scottish Gaelic - Preposition - Georgian - Dative construction

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The dative was common among early Indo-European languages and has survived to the present in the Balto-Slavic branch and the Germanic branch, among others. It also exists in similar forms in several non–Indo-European languagues, such as the Finno-Ugric family of languages and Japanese.

Related Topics:
Indo-European languages - Balto-Slavic - Germanic - Finno-Ugric - Japanese

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Languages that use or used the dative case include:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Albanian
• Czech
• Dutch
• Old English (Anglo-Saxon)
• Faroese
• French (extremely limited)
• Georgian
• German
• Ancient Greek (and occasionally Modern Greek)
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Latin
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Polish
• Romanian
• Russian
• Sanskrit
• Serbo-Croatian
• Scottish Gaelic
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Ukrainian
• Yiddish
 
Dative case: The dative case in English ►