Case: case
| Values: | Nom | Gen | Dat | Acc | Voc |
Case is an inflectional feature of nouns, proper nouns, adjectives, determiners, pronouns, numerals and verbs (participles).
Case helps specify the role of the noun phrase in the sentence. For example, in Modern Greek nominative is the case of nominal subjects and contrasts with the accusative case that typically marks objects. However, the accusative is also used to mark nouns/proper nouns used as adverbs such as day names.
Modern Greek morphology distinguishes four cases:
Nom, Gen, Acc, Voc. Dative was used in older forms of the Greek language; in Modern Greek it occurs only in fixed expressions inherited from older Creek, e.g. γαία πυρί μιχθήτω ‘let earth be mixed with fire”.
Examples
- singular nominative μητέρα “mother”, genitive μητέρας accusative μητέρα vocative μητέρα
- plural nominative μητέρες genitive μητέρων accusative μητ΄έρες vocative μητέρες
Nom: nominative
The base form of the noun (normally in the singular number), also used as citation form (lemma). This is the word form typically used for nominal subjects of clauses.
Examples
- Η Χαρά κοιμάται. “Chara sleeps.”
- Η δασκάλα αγαπά τον Μάρκο._ “The teacher loves Markos.”
Gen: genitive
Genitives prototypically mark possessors and arguments of deverbal nominals. In Modern Greek, it is the case of the indirect object (typically with verbs of giving and saying). A handful of verbs and adverbs require a direct object in the genitive case.
Examples
- τα παιδιά της Ελ΄ένης “Eleni’s children”
- η καταστροφή της πόλης “the destruction of the city”
- της έδωσες το δέμα; “did you give her the parcel?”
- το άρθρο βρίθει λαθών “the article is full of mistakes”
- κατόπιν του ελέγχου της υποβολή σας “after checking your submission”
Dat: dative
Modern Greek does not mark the dative case morphologically; depending on the dialect, several of its functions, in particular that of the indirect object, have been taken up by the genitive case (Standard Modern Greek) or the accusative case (Northern dialects of Modern Greek). Morphological datives occur only in fixed expressions inherited from older versions of the Greek language.
Examples
- εν τούτοις “however, nevertheless”
- γαία πυρί μιχθήτω “(let earth mix with fire) After me, the flood.”
- δόξα τω θεώ “(glory to the God) thank God”
Acc: accusative
Accusative typically marks direct objects of verbs and preposition objects. It also marks nouns used as adverbials.
Examples
- είδε την πόλη “he saw the town”
- γράμμα από την αδελφή μου “letter from my sister”
- θα έρθει την επόμενη βδομάδα “he will come next week”
Voc: vocative
Vocative is used to address someone or, less frequently, something.
Examples
- Άγγελε, πρόσεχε! “Aggelos, watch out!”
Case in other languages: [am] [apu] [arr] [bej] [bg] [cs] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [ga] [gn] [grc] [gub] [hu] [hy] [ka] [kmr] [koi] [kpv] [ky] [mdf] [myu] [myv] [pcm] [pt] [qpm] [ru] [sl] [sv] [tl] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [uk] [urb] [urj]