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"page_name": "word choice - \"I am from\" or \"I come from\"? - English Language ...",
"page_url": "https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/8262/i-am-from-or-i-come-from",
"page_snippet": "If someone is asking me about my nationality what is the correct answer? Question: Where are you from? I am from... I come from...In that case, we would reply, \"I'm from Iran,\" for example. However, if the person asked us, \"Where did you come from?\" it may be more natural to answer, \"I come from Iran.\" ... I get it when a person asked \"Where are you from?\" and you answer \"I'm from Iran.\" but why \"Where did you come from?\" be answered by \"I come from Iran.\" rather than \"I came from Iran.\"? I get it when a person asked \"Where are you from?\" and you answer \"I'm from Iran.\" but why \"Where did you come from?\" be answered by \"I come from Iran.\" rather than \"I came from Iran.\"? ... For sure the first one is better. \"I am from Kish\" is a correct answer for the question of \"Where are you from?\". ... Mohsen Gh.Mohsen Gh. ... I think \"I am from\" is referring to your origin (that doesn't change) ex: \"I am from England\" (= \"I was born in England\"). (A reminder: think about your name ex: \"I am Chlo\u00e9, nice to meet you\") The answer to the question isn't different if you were born other than where your current home is. You could say \"I'm from Thailand, but I'm originally from the Philippines.\" I answer that question \"My family is from West Virginia, but I've lived many places.\" It depends on the question we are answering. Number 1 would be correct in the usual case, when someone asks, \"Where are you from?\" In that case, we would reply, \"I'm from Iran,\" for example. However, if the person asked us, \"Where did you come from?\" it may be more natural to answer, \"I come from Iran.\"",
"page_result": "\n\n\n \n\n \n\n word choice - \"I am from\" or \"I come from\"? - English Language Learners Stack Exchange\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n\n\t
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\n \n J.R. Yes, and in natural conversation the question and answer will normally be contracted: Where're you from? (which often will sound almost identical to Where you from?). Answer: I'm from ... .\n \n
It depends on the question we are answering. Number 1 would be correct in the usual case, when someone asks, \"Where are you from?\" In that case, we would reply, \"I'm from Iran,\" for example. However, if the person asked us, \"Where did you come from?\" it may be more natural to answer, \"I come from Iran.\"
\n \n I get it when a person asked "Where are you from?" and you answer "I'm from Iran." but why "Where did you come from?" be answered by "I come from Iran." rather than "I came from Iran."?\n \n
I think \"I am from\" is referring to your origin (that doesn't change) ex: \"I am from England\" (= \"I was born in England\"). (A reminder: think about your name ex: \"I am Chlo\u00e9, nice to meet you\")
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In parallel, \"I come from\" is more referring to a present situation ex: \"I come from France\". \nThese two expressions in a same sentence you'd be something like
\n\n
\"Hi! My name is Chlo\u00e9, I am from England but now I'm visiting Europe. I've visited Portugal and Spain, and now I am landing in Belgium. I come from France , I took the airplane in Paris.\"
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In this example, the person says to be born in England, and to arrive from France.
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A way to remember this would be thinking about \"I come from\" : Think about come and go! (You COME from somewhere, to GO somewhere else. Think about traveling, it may help).
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COME and GO --> situation can change \nAre --> Never changes
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I think this is correct, from my logic it makes sense, but I'm not 100% sure.
I like the Are and Do distinction. "Are" is more solid, an origin and denotes a particular place. "Were Do" or "Do", is usually used as a verb and denotes action, so it may not be a place of origin. When people ask the question, "where are you from?" They usually want to know your place of origin on Earth. This entire discussion is arbitrary and fraught with opinion. Pick what you like.
If someone is in another country such as a tourist, says \"I am from Kurdistan\". if someone moves to another country and starting to live there, says \"I come from Kurdistan\"
\n \n I'm not sure what distinction you're trying to draw here. For me (native speaker of British English), the phrases "I am from Kurdistan" and "I come from Kurdistan" seem to be interchangeable and either could be used by somebody who was just visiting another country or moving there to live. Could you give a definition of how you think they're different, rather than just giving an example?\n \n
First of all you shouldn't ask this way \"Where do you come from?\" grammatically wrong, \"do\" is already your VERB and \"come\" is also a VERB so it's kind of dangling. It's better to ask \"Where are you from?\" and the answer depends on the situation. For instance, I'm a Filipino and I went to Thailand. If someone asked me \"Where are you from?\" I would say, \"I come from the Philippines.\" because I was in the Philippines and I moved to another country. If I replied to the person \"Where are you from?\" he would say \"I am from Thailand.\" because he doesn't come from anywhere else.
\n \n "Where do you come from?" is informal, but it isn't grammatically incorrect. The answer to the question isn't different if you were born other than where your current home is. You could say "I'm from Thailand, but I'm originally from the Philippines." I answer that question "My family is from West Virginia, but I've lived many places."\n \n
\n \n "Where are you from? = Where do you come from?" .. I'm not sure about it being informal. I hear it mostly in British English ESL courses. Does that mean it's UK English? Brits should chime in.\n \n
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"page_name": "Grammatical case - Wikipedia",
"page_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_case",
"page_snippet": "A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nominal groups consisting of a noun and its modifiers belong ...The Tsez language, a Northeast Caucasian language, has 64 cases. The original version of John Quijada's constructed language Ithkuil has 81 noun cases, and its descendant Ilaksh and Ithkuil after the 2011 revision both have 96 noun cases. They are used with personal pronouns: 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). Forms such as I, he and we are used for the subject (\"I kicked John\"), and forms such as me, him and us are used for the object (\"John kicked me\"). As a language evolves, cases can merge (for instance, in Ancient Greek, the locative case merged with the dative), a phenomenon known as syncretism. The equivalent to \"case\" in several other European languages also derives from casus, including cas in French, caso in Italian, caso in Spanish, caso in Portuguese and Kasus in German. The Russian word \u043f\u0430\u0434\u0435\u0301\u0436 (pady\u00e9zh) is a calque from Greek and similarly contains a root meaning \"fall\", and the German Fall and Czech p\u00e1d simply mean \"fall\", and are used for both the concept of grammatical case and to refer to physical falls. Although not very prominent in modern English, cases featured much more saliently in Old English and other ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, Old Persian, Ancient Greek, and 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), with most having six to eight cases, as well as Icelandic, German 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, among other things, the living Germanic language that could be said to most closely resemble Proto-Germanic.",
"page_result": "\n\n\n\nGrammatical case - Wikipedia\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJump to content\n
A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording.[1] In various languages, nominal groups consisting of a noun and its modifiers belong to one of a few such categories. For instance, in English, one says I see them and they see me: the nominative pronouns I/they represent the perceiver and the 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.\n
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) and genitive cases. They are used with personal pronouns: 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).[2][3] Forms such as I, he and we are used for the subject (\"I kicked John\"), and forms such as me, him and us are used for the object (\"John kicked me\").\n
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 \u03c4\u1ff7 \u03c0\u03bf\u03b4\u03af (t\u00f4i pod\u00ed, meaning \"the foot\") with both words (the definite article, and the noun \u03c0\u03bf\u03cd\u03c2 (po\u00fas) \"foot\") changing to dative form.\n
More formally, case has been defined as \"a system of marking dependent nouns for the type of relationship they bear to their heads\".[5]: p.1 Cases should be distinguished from thematic roles such as agent and 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 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.\n
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.[6][7] The advancements of those philosophers were later employed by the philologists of the Library of Alexandria.[1][6]\n
The English word case used in this sense comes from the Latin casus, which is derived from the verb cadere, \"to fall\", from the Proto-Indo-European root*\u1e31ad-.[8] The Latin word is a calque of the Greek \u03c0\u03c4\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2, pt\u00f4sis, lit. \"falling, fall\".[9] 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 declinere, \"to lean\", from the PIE root *\u1e31ley-.\n
The equivalent to \"case\" in several other European languages also derives from casus, including cas in French, caso in Italian, caso in Spanish, caso in Portuguese and Kasus in German. The Russian word \u043f\u0430\u0434\u0435\u0301\u0436 (pady\u00e9zh) is a calque from Greek and similarly contains a root meaning \"fall\", and the German Fall and Czech p\u00e1d simply mean \"fall\", and are used for both the concept of grammatical case and to refer to physical falls. The Dutch equivalent naamval translates as 'noun case', in which 'noun' has the older meaning of both 'adjective (noun)' and '(substantive) noun'. The Finnish equivalent is sija, whose main meaning is \"position\" or \"place\".\n
\nOn this sign in Russian memorializing an anniversary of the city of Balakhna, the word Balakhna (Russian: \u0411\u0430\u043b\u0430\u0445\u043d\u0430) on the right is in the nominative case, whereas the word Balakhne (Russian: \u0411\u0430\u043b\u0430\u0445\u043d\u0435) 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.\n
Although not very prominent in modern English, cases featured much more saliently in Old English and other ancient Indo-European languages, such as Latin, Old Persian, Ancient Greek, and 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[10]), with most having six to eight cases, as well as Icelandic, German 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, among other things, the living Germanic language that could be said[by whom?] to most closely resemble Proto-Germanic.\n
The eight historical Indo-European cases are as follows, with examples either of the English case or of the English syntactic alternative to case:\n
Corresponds to English's object pronouns and preposition for construction before the object, often marked by a definite article the. Together with dative, it forms modern English's oblique case.\n
Corresponds to English's object pronouns and preposition to construction before the object, often marked by a definite article the. Together with accusative, it forms modern English's oblique case.\n
A means or tool used or companion present in/while performing an action\n
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with a mop,\n
by hand\n
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We wiped the floor with a mop.\n
This letter was written by hand.\n
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How? With what or using what? By what means? With whom?\n
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Corresponds to English prepositions by, with and via as well as synonymous constructions such as using, by use of and through.\n
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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 \u2013 one of the defining features of so-called fusional languages. Old English was a fusional language, but Modern English does not work this way.\n
Modern English has largely abandoned the inflectional case system of Proto-Indo-European in favor of analytic constructions. The personal pronouns of Modern English retain morphological case more strongly than any other word class (a remnant of the more extensive case system of Old English). For other pronouns, and all nouns, adjectives, and articles, grammatical function is indicated only by word order, by prepositions, and by the \"Saxon genitive\" (-'s).[a]\n
The oblique case (object pronouns such as me, him, her, us), used for the direct or indirect object of a verb, for the object of a preposition, for an absolute disjunct, and sometimes for the complement of a copula.
Most English personal pronouns have five forms: the nominative case form, the oblique case form, a distinct 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 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).\n
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.\n
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:[5]: p.89 \n
This is, however, only a general tendency. Many forms of Central German, such as Colognian and Luxembourgish, have a dative case but lack a genitive. In Irish nouns, the nominative and accusative have fallen together, whereas the dative\u2013locative has remained separate in some paradigms; Irish also has genitive and vocative cases. 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 neither a locative nor a prepositional case.\n
There are five Cases, the right [nominative], the generic [genitive], the dative, the accusative, and the vocative.[17]\n
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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.\n
However, for some languages, such as Latin, due to case 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:\n
For similar reasons, the customary order of the four cases in Icelandic is nominative\u2013accusative\u2013dative\u2013genitive, as illustrated below:\n
In the most common[5] 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, Mongolian, Quechua, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, and other languages. In Basque and various Amazonian and Australian languages, only the phrase-final word (not necessarily the noun) is marked for case. In many Indo-European, 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 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).[18]\n
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 five, and Ancient Greek three.[19] For example, Slovak has 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).\n
In Indo-European languages, declension patterns may depend on a variety of factors, such as gender, number, phonological environment, and irregular historical factors. Pronouns sometimes 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, -\u00f3w, -i/-y, -e- for nouns, and -ego, -ej, -ich/-ych for adjectives. To a lesser extent, a noun's animacy or humanness may add another layer of complexity. For example, in Russian:\n
Australian languages represent a diversity of case paradigms in terms of their alignment (i.e. nominative-accusative vs. 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.[20] Dench and Evans (1988)[21] use a five-part system for categorizing the functional roles of case marking in Australian languages. They are enumerated below as they appear in Senge (2015):[20]\n
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Relational: a suffix which represents syntactic or semantic roles of a noun phrase in clauses.
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Adnominal: a suffix which relates a noun phrase to another within the one noun phrase.
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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.
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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).
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Derivational: a suffix which attaches to a bare stem before other case suffixes and create a new lexical item.
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To illustrate this paradigm in action, take the case-system of 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:\n
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:\n
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[22]) because they have a singular fixed position within the phrase. For Bardi, the case marker usually appears on the first phrasal constituent[23] while the opposite is the case for Wangkatja (i.e. the case marker is attracted to the rightmost edge of the phrase).[24] See the following examples respectively:\n
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\":\n
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absolutive (etxe, etxea, etxeak, etxeok: \"house, the / a house, (the / some) houses, these houses\"),
prolative (etxetzat), only in the indefinite grammatical number,
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partitive (etxerik), only in the indefinite grammatical number, and
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distributive (Bost liburu ikasleko banatu dituzte, \"They have handed out five books to each student\"), only in the indefinite grammatical number.
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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:\n
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etxearena (that which is of the house), etxearenarekin (with the one which pertains to the house),
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neskarentzako (which is for the girl), neskarentzakoan (in the one which is for the girl),
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neskekiko (which is with the girls), neskekikoa (the one which is for the girls),
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arazoarengatiko (which is because of the problem), arazoarengatikoak (the ones which are due to the problems),
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zurezkoaz (by means of the wooden one),
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etxeetakoaz (about the one which is in the houses), etxeetakoari (to the one which is in the houses),
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etxetiko (which comes from the house), etxetikoa (the one which comes from the house), etxetikoari (to the one which comes from the house),
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etxeetarako (which goes to the houses), etxeetarakoa (the one which goes to the houses), etxeetarakoaz (about the one which goes to the houses),
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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),
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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)...
In 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 definite article and one of the German words for \"sailor\".\n
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der Seemann (nominative) \"the sailor\" [as a subject] (e.g. Der Seemann steht da \u2013 the sailor is standing there)
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des Seemann(e)s (genitive) \"the sailor's / [of] the sailor\" (e.g. Der Name des Seemannes ist Otto \u2013 the name of the sailor is Otto)
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dem Seemann(e) (dative) \"[to/for] the sailor\" [as an indirect object] (e.g. Ich gab dem Seemann ein Geschenk \u2013 I gave a present to the sailor)
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den Seemann (accusative) \"the sailor\" [as a direct object] (e.g. Ich sah den Seemann \u2013 I saw the sailor)
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An example with the feminine definite article with the German word for \"woman\".\n
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die Frau (nominative) \"the woman\" [as a subject] (e.g. Die Frau isst - the woman eats)
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der Frau (genitive) \"the woman's / [of] the woman\" (e.g. Die Katze der Frau ist wei\u00df - the cat of the woman is white)
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der Frau (dative) \"[to/for] the woman\" [as an indirect object] (e.g. Ich gab der Frau ein Geschenk - I gave a present to the woman)
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die Frau (accusative) \"the woman\" [as a direct object] (e.g. Ich sah die Frau - I saw the woman)
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An example with the neuter definite article with the German word for \"book\".\n
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das Buch (nominative) \"the book\" [as a subject] (e.g. Das Buch ist gut - the book is good)
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des Buch(e)s (genitive) \"the book's/ [of] the book\" (e.g. Die Seiten des Buchs sind gr\u00fcn - the pages of the book are green)
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dem Buch(e) (dative) \"[to/for] the book\" [as an indirect object] (e.g. Ich gab dem Buch einen Titel - I gave the book a title)
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das Buch (accusative) \"the book\" [as a direct object] (e.g. Ich sah das Buch - I saw the book)
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Proper names for cities have two genitive nouns:\n
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der Hauptbahnhof Berlins (primary genitive) \"the main train station of Berlin\"
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der Berliner Hauptbahnhof (secondary genitive) \"Berlin's main train station\"
Hindi-Urdu (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]) 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.[26][27] The case forms which do not exist for certain pronouns are constructed using primary postpositions (or other grammatical particles) and the oblique case (shown in parentheses in the table below).\n
The other cases are constructed 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 \u0928\u0947 (ne), dative and accusative \u0915\u094b (ko), instrumental and ablative \u0938\u0947 (se), genitive \u0915\u093e (k\u0101), inessive \u092e\u0947\u0902 (m\u1ebd), adessive \u092a\u0947 (pe), terminative \u0924\u0915 (tak), semblative \u0938\u093e (s\u0101).[28]\n
An example of a Latin case inflection is given below, using the singular forms of the Latin term for \"cook\", which belongs to Latin's second declension class.\n
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coquus (nominative) \"[the] cook\" [as a subject] (e.g. coquus ib\u012b stat \u2013 the cook is standing there)
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coqu\u012b (genitive) \"[the] cook's / [of the] cook\" (e.g. n\u014dmen coqu\u012b Claudius est \u2013 the cook's name is Claudius)
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coqu\u014d (dative) \"[to/for the] cook\" [as an indirect object] (e.g. coqu\u014d d\u014dnum ded\u012b \u2013 I gave a present to the cook)
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coquum (accusative) \"[the] cook\" [as a direct object] (e.g. coquum v\u012bd\u012b \u2013 I saw the cook)
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coqu\u014d (ablative) \"[by/with/from/in the] cook\" [in various uses not covered by the above] (e.g. sum altior coqu\u014d \u2013 I am taller than the cook: ablative of comparison)
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coque (vocative) \"[you] the cook\" [addressing the object] (e.g. gr\u0101ti\u0101s tibi ag\u014d, coque \u2013 I thank you, cook)
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For some toponyms, a seventh case, the locative, also exists, such as Mediol\u0101n\u012b (in Mediolanum).\n
The Romance languages have largely abandoned or simplified the grammatical cases of Latin. Much like English, most Romance case markers survive only in pronouns.\n
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.\n
An example of a 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.\n
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\u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u0301\u043a (nominative) \"[the] sailor\" [as a subject] (e.g. \u0422\u0430\u043c \u0441\u0442\u043e\u0438\u0442 \u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a: The sailor is standing there)
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\u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u00e1 (genitive) \"[the] sailor's / [of the] sailor\" (e.g. \u0421\u044b\u043d \u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u0430 \u2014 \u0445\u0443\u0434\u043e\u0436\u043d\u0438\u043a: The sailor's son is an artist)
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\u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u0443\u0301 (dative) \"[to/for the] sailor\" [as an indirect object] (e.g. \u041c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u0443 \u043f\u043e\u0434\u0430\u0440\u0438\u043b\u0438 \u043f\u043e\u0434\u0430\u0440\u043e\u043a: (They/Someone) gave a present to the sailor)
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\u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u00e1 (accusative) \"[the] sailor\" [as a direct object] (e.g. \u0412\u0438\u0436\u0443 \u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u0430: (I) see the sailor)
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\u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u043e\u0301\u043c (instrumental) \"[with/by the] sailor\" (e.g. \u0414\u0440\u0443\u0436\u0443 \u0441 \u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u043e\u043c: (I) have a friendship with the sailor)
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\u043e/\u043d\u0430/\u0432 \u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u0435\u0301 (prepositional) \"[about/on/in the] sailor\" (e.g. \u0414\u0443\u043c\u0430\u044e \u043e \u043c\u043e\u0440\u044f\u043a\u0435: (I) think about the sailor)
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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 (\u0432 \u043b\u0435\u0441\u0443\u0301, \u043d\u0430 \u043c\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0443\u0301, \u0432 \u0441\u043b\u0435\u0437\u0430\u0301\u0445), partitive (\u0447\u0430\u0301\u044e, \u0441\u0430\u0301\u0445\u0430\u0440\u0443, \u043f\u0435\u0441\u043a\u0443\u0301), and two forms of vocative \u2014 old (\u0413\u043e\u0301\u0441\u043f\u043e\u0434\u0438, \u0411\u043e\u0301\u0436\u0435, \u043e\u0301\u0442\u0447\u0435) and neo-vocative (\u041c\u0430\u0448, \u043f\u0430\u043f, \u0440\u0435\u0431\u044f\u0301\u0442). Sometimes, so called count-form (for some countable nouns after numerals) is considered to be a sub-case.\n
Grammatical case was analyzed extensively in Sanskrit. The grammarian P\u0101\u1e47ini identified six semantic roles or k\u0101raka,[29] which are related to the following eight Sanskrit cases in order:[30]\n
For example, in the following sentence leaf is the agent (kart\u0101, nominative case), tree is the source (ap\u0101d\u0101na, ablative case), and ground is the locus (adhikara\u1e47a, locative case). The declensions are reflected in the morphemes -\u0101t, -am, and -au respectively.\n
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 kart\u0101, but appears in the instrumental case, and rice, the karman, object, is in the nominative case (as subject of the verb). The declensions are reflected in the morphemes -ena and -am.\n
The Tamil case system is analyzed in native and missionary grammars as consisting of a finite number of cases.[31][32] The usual treatment of Tamil case (Arden 1942)[33] 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[32] and that Tamil usage is best understood if each suffix or combination of suffixes is seen as marking a separate case.[34]\n
The accusative can exist only in the noun(whether it is derived from a verb or not). For example, \"Arkada\u015flar bize gelmeyi d\u00fc\u015f\u00fcn\u00fcyorlar.\" (Friends are thinking of coming to us).\n
The dative can exist only in the noun (whether it is derived from a verb or not). For example, \"Bol bol kitap okumaya \u00e7al\u0131\u015f\u0131yorum.\" (I try to read a lot of books).[35]\n
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.[36][37] In English, apart from the pronouns discussed above, case has vanished altogether except for the possessive/non-possessive dichotomy in nouns.\n
The evolution of the treatment of case relationships can be circular.[5]: pp.167\u2013174 Postpositions 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 can then be subject to various phonological processes such as assimilation, vowel centering to the schwa, phoneme loss, and 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.\n
Recent experiments in agent-based modeling have shown how case systems can emerge and evolve in a population of language users.[38] 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.\n
Languages are categorized into several case systems, based on their morphosyntactic alignment\u2014how they group verb agents and patients into cases:\n
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Nominative\u2013accusative (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.
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Ergative\u2013absolutive (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.
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Ergative\u2013accusative (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).
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Active\u2013stative (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).
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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 verbaffix in 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.
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The following are systems that some languages use to mark case instead of, or in addition to, declension:\n
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Positional: Nouns are not inflected for case; the position of a noun in the sentence expresses its case.
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Adpositional: Nouns are accompanied by words that mark case.
With a few exceptions, most languages in the Finno-Ugric family make extensive use of cases. Finnish has 15 cases according to the traditional description (or up to 30 depending on the interpretation).[39] However, only 12 are commonly used in speech (see Finnish noun cases and Finnish locative system). Estonian has 14 (see Estonian locative system) and Hungarian has 18, both with additional archaic cases used for some words.
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Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages also exhibit complex case systems. Since the abovementioned languages, along with Korean and Japanese, shared certain similarities, linguists proposed an Altaic family and reconstructed its case system; although the hypothesis had been largely discredited.
The original version of John Quijada's constructed languageIthkuil has 81 noun cases,[40] and its descendant Ilaksh and Ithkuil after the 2011 revision both have 96 noun cases.[41][42]
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The lemma form of words, which is the form chosen by convention as the canonical form of a word, is usually the most unmarked or basic case, which is typically the nominative, trigger, or absolutive case, whichever a language may have.\n
^The status of the possessive as an affix or a clitic is the subject of debate.[11][12] 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\"[13]) or as an inflection[14][15] of the last word of a phrase (\"edge inflection\").[16]\n
^Saat dokuza on var. On ikiye \u00e7eyrek var. Ka\u00e7 liraya? Ka\u00e7a?\n
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^Edatlardan \u2013e ile ba\u011flananlar: bize g\u00f6re, bize kar\u015f\u0131, her \u015feye kar\u015f\u0131n, k\u0131\u015fa do\u011fru, o konuya dair, size ait, ya\u011fmura kar\u015f\u0131n, iyiliklerine kar\u015f\u0131l\u0131k\n
^Kesir saylar\u0131 kurar: Y\u00fczde yirmi faiz, d\u00f6rtte bir elma, y\u00fczde yetmi\u015f devam, binde bir olas\u0131l\u0131k, y\u00fczde on be\u015f indirim.\n
^Some prepositions of name connects with \u2013den: \u2013den \u00f6nce, - den sonra, -den dolay\u0131, - den beri, -den itibaren, -den ba\u015fka vb. kahvalt\u0131dan \u00f6nce, yemekten sonra, ya\u011fmurdan dolay\u0131, \u00f6\u011fleden beri, b\u00fcg\u00fcnden itibaren, Ay\u00e7a\u2019dan ba\u015fka.\n
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^-den+ek-fill (ait olma bildirir): Kimlerdensiniz? Alp te bizdendir. (Bizim tak\u0131mdand\u0131r.) Bulgaristan g\u00f6\u00e7menlerindenmi\u015f. Sizin \u00f6\u011frencilerinizdenim.\n
^\"L. c\u0101sus used to translate Gr. \u03c0\u03c4\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 lit. 'falling, fall'. By Aristotle\u03c0\u03c4\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 was applied to any derived, inflected, or extended form of the simple \u1f44\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1 or \u1fe5\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1 (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. \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b1\u03af\u03c9\u03c2 was a \u03c0\u03c4\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 of \u03b4\u03af\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2), the other tenses and moods of the verb, including its interrogative form. The grammarians, following the Stoics, restricted \u03c0\u03c4\u1ff6\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 to nouns, and included the nominative under the designation\". \"case\". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)\n
^Hudson, Richard (2013). \"A cognitive analysis of John's hat\". In B\u00f6rjars, Kersti; Denison, David; Scott, Alan (eds.). Morphosyntactic Categories and the Expression of Possession. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 123\u2013148. ISBN9789027273000.\n
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^B\u00f6rjars, Kersti; Denison, David; Krajewski, Grzegorz; Scott, Alan (2013). \"Expression of Possession in English\". In B\u00f6rjars, Kersti; Denison, David; Scott, Alan (eds.). Morphosyntactic Categories and the Expression of Possession. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 149\u2013176. ISBN9789027273000.\n
^Greenbaum, Sidney (1996). The Oxford English Grammar. Oxford University Press. pp. 109\u2013110. ISBN978-0-19-861250-6. 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\n
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^Quirk, Randolph; Greenbaum, Sidney; Leech, Geoffrey; Svartik, Jan (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman. p. 319. 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')\n
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^Payne, John; Huddleston, Rodney (2002). \"Nouns and noun phrases\". In Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey (eds.). The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 479\u2013481. ISBN978-0-521-43146-0. 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.\n
^Frank Beetham, Learning Greek with Plato, Bristol Phoenix Press, 2007.\n
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^ abSenge, Chikako. 2015. A Grammar of Wanyjirra, a language of Northern Australia. The Australian National University Ph.D.\n
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^Dench, Alan; Evans, Nicholas (1988-06-01). \"Multiple case-marking in Australian languages\". Australian Journal of Linguistics. 8 (1): 1\u201347. doi:10.1080/07268608808599390. ISSN0726-8602.\n
^ abK. V. Zvelebil (1972). \"Dravidian Case-Suffixes: Attempt at a Reconstruction\". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 92 (2): 272\u2013276. doi:10.2307/600654. JSTOR600654.\n
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^Arden, A.H. 1942, repr. 1969. A Progressive Grammar of the Tamil Language. Madras: Christian Literature Society.\n
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^Harold F. Schiffman (June 1998). \"Standardization or restandardization: The case for \"Standard\" Spoken Tamil\". Language in Society. 27 (3): 359\u2013385. doi:10.1017/S0047404598003030.\n
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"page_last_modified": " Sat, 16 Mar 2024 06:15:20 GMT"
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"page_name": "Cases | What this word means for language learners | Eurolinguiste",
"page_url": "https://eurolinguiste.com/cases-what-this-word-means-for-language-learners/",
"page_snippet": "Cases. If you\u2019re about to learn a language and you\u2019ve been doing a bit of research, you may have stumbled across this term in your reading. Perhaps it was someone celebrating that their language didn\u2019t have any cases or another complaining that the language they\u2019re studying has too many.Older forms of the three languages originally had more cases but they either melded into fewer cases or fell out of use. In fact, cases seem to be more prominent in older languages \u2013 Old English, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin \u2013 but they are not as common in languages used today. Instead, we\u2019ve replaced their place in our grammars with our little friend, the preposition. ... Coincidentally, when I was ready to schedule this post, Lauren over at Fluent in 3 Months happened to publish a post on how she learns Russian cases and, of course, I had to share [Tweet \u201cIt\u2019s all about flexing your language muscles & using what you know to start speaking.\u201d] There\u2019s actually a special word to describe the loss of cases or the merging of two separate cases into one. It\u2019s syncretism. This word describes the loss or reduction of cases in the different languages, which includes Modern Greek, English and German. Older forms of the three languages originally had more cases but they either melded into fewer cases or fell out of use. But all I cared about was the fact that my grandfather spoke the language, that it sounded pretty, and that it was different than the other languages I had learned. It would be a grand adventure! And then I began hearing the word \u201ccases\u201d come up in my lessons and as I started to realize what I had signed up for, I was already knee-deep in learning Croatian, madly in love with the language and it was too late for me to turn back. So that\u2019s why I want to share what I\u2019ve learnt since then with you. I want to help you make an informed decision when you\u2019re selecting your next language. Different language learners struggle with different aspects of language learning. For some, memorizing vocabulary may be more difficult. For others, absorbing grammar rules may seem impossible. Languages are also unique in that there are certain aspects of each that are more difficult for learners depending on their background and native language. The grammar of languages with a lot of different cases will be much harder for a learner whose language does not have many, while a language with a tonal system, like Chinese, may be difficult for someone who struggles to remember vocabulary since many of the characters sound similar if you don\u2019t have an ear for tones.",
"page_result": "\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\tCases | What this word means for language learners | Eurolinguiste\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Cases. If you\u2019re about to learn a language and you\u2019ve been doing a bit of research, you may have stumbled across this term in your reading.
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Perhaps it was someone celebrating that their language didn\u2019t have any cases or another complaining that the language they\u2019re studying has too many. Either way, it\u2019s definitely something that gets brought up.
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If you\u2019re not past the newbie stage in your language, however, you might not know what these things called cases are.
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So what exactly are cases when it comes to language learning?
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When I decided to study my first Slavic language, I was completely ignorant of cases and what they would mean for both my grammar and vocabulary studies. If I had known about them, I might have thought about my decision more carefully. But all I cared about was the fact that my grandfather spoke the language, that it sounded pretty, and that it was different than the other languages I had learned.
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It would be a grand adventure!
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And then I began hearing the word \u201ccases\u201d come up in my lessons and as I started to realize what I had signed up for, I was already knee-deep in learning Croatian, madly in love with the language and it was too late for me to turn back.
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So that\u2019s why I want to share what I\u2019ve learnt since then with you. I want to help you make an informed decision when you\u2019re selecting your next language.
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Why are cases a big deal?
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Different language learners struggle with different aspects of language learning. For some, memorizing vocabulary may be more difficult. For others, absorbing grammar rules may seem impossible.
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Languages are also unique in that there are certain aspects of each that are more difficult for learners depending on their background and native language. The grammar of languages with a lot of different cases will be much harder for a learner whose language does not have many, while a language with a tonal system, like Chinese, may be difficult for someone who struggles to remember vocabulary since many of the characters sound similar if you don\u2019t have an ear for tones.
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If grammar isn\u2019t your thing, learning a language with several cases might not be for you. But if your love for the language can help you work through it, then by all means go ahead!
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As long as cases aren\u2019t something that will deter you from continuing on with the language, they\u2019re not a big deal. But if you really don\u2019t want to spend the time memorizing extra vocabulary and learning the rules surrounding cases, then a language with several of them might not be the right fit for you.
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So what are cases?
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When you look up the definition of cases, a lot of the material you\u2019ll find contain long and complicated explanations. And when you\u2019re starting to learn a language, long and complicated explanations are one of the things that can quickly deter you from continuing your learning.
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The truth is, cases are pretty complicated, but it\u2019s all about approaching them within a context. Trying to memorize the rules and the words that are tied to them in isolation can make that part of learning a language that much harder, so I don\u2019t recommend it.
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The word \u201ccase\u201d is derived from the Latin word casus which means \u201cto fall.\u201d It is used to describe words that have fallen away from their nominative, or root form.
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Cases are the grammatical function of a noun or pronoun within a phrase, clause, or sentence. To use English as an example, it\u2019s essentially the difference between I and me, he and him, she and her. \u201cI fell in love with him\u201d or \u201cHe fell in love with me.\u201d It helps indicate who or what is doing the action and who or what it\u2019s being done to.
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In some languages (*cough* Croatian), the adjectives are also modified to indicate the case being used. In others, only the nouns themselves reflect which case is being used.
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What does this mean?
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It means that you have to study several versions of every noun you learn in a language with cases. In a language like Croatian ,where you\u2019re already dealing with gender and plural forms of words, cases add a whole new dynamic to the memorization of vocabulary and grasping even basic grammar.
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Cases can be pretty intimidating for someone who doesn\u2019t like grammar. Especially since they\u2019re quite important relatively early on. In comparison to a language like, French, where the grammar isn\u2019t too hard at the beginning (for English speakers), a language like Russian is going to challenge you grammatically right from the get-go. You can\u2019t even say something as simple as \u201cI live in the US\u201d or \u201cI am from Ireland\u201d without encountering them. My Croatian teacher even advised me not to try to really delve into the language or learn too much vocabulary until I had a basic understanding of cases!
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But please don\u2019t let cases deter you from learning a language if it\u2019s one you really want to pursue. Yes, they\u2019re hard, but they\u2019re not impossible. And once you learn the rules, they become second nature. It may be hard working getting to that point, but once you do, you\u2019ll feel even more rewarded for sticking through it.
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What are some of the different cases?
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I\u2019ve included this section just to provide a description of a few of the different cases. There are, of course, more than what\u2019s listed here, and the descriptions I\u2019ve included are really simplified versions of the rules that surround cases. The ways in which cases are used vary from language to language, and they can be significantly more complex than what\u2019s below.
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So why am I including this section? To give you a few, basic examples of cases and how they work.
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So let\u2019s take a look at 8 different cases:
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Nominative // This case indicates the subject. I love pears.
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Accusative // This case indicates the direct object of a verb. My mom loves me.
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Dative // This case indicates the indirect object of a verb. My mom bought me some pears.
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Ablative // This case indicates movement from something. It can also indicate a cause. She bought them from the store.
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Genitive // This case illustrates possession. It also corresponds with the preposition of. My pears were delicious. I enjoyed every bite of the pears.
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Vocative // This case indicates who or what is being addressed. Hey, Mom! Thanks for the pears.
Hungarian has a whopping 18 cases and Finnish has 15. Basque, Estonian, Georgian, and Bengali each have more than 10 cases. West Greenlandic has between 8 and 9 depending on who you ask (you can see where this starts to get complicated) while Tamil has 7 or 8. Polish, Czech, Serbian, and Croatian have 7. Latin and Russian have between 5 and 6. Romanian has 5. German, Icelandic, and Modern Greek have 4.
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You should also take into consideration something that I mentioned above. In some languages, like Icelandic and Croatian, cases not only change the noun but they can also modify the articles, adjectives, and personal names.
Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Dutch, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Indonesian are among some of the languages that don\u2019t have cases.
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Want to avoid cases in a language that has them?
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To a certain degree of course, there are two ways to do this. They may not eliminate the need to use cases entirely, but they just might cut down the number you need to express your thoughts.
\n\n\n\n
One way is by throwing in a preposition. In another language, changing the sentence from \u201cMy mom gave me some pears\u201d to or from \u201cmy mom gave some pears to me\u201d can make your life simpler.
\n\n\n\n
Another is by changing the word order. Again. \u201cThe pears were given to me by my mom\u201d as opposed to \u201cmy mom gave me some pears\u201d can make a huge difference your ability to form sentences.
\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s all about flexing your language muscles and using what you know to construct the things you\u2019d like to say. Sometimes that means going at it in a round about way. And that\u2019s okay as long as you\u2019re saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
\n\n\n\n[Tweet “It\u2019s all about flexing your language muscles & using what you know to start speaking.”]\n\n\n\n
An Interesting Little Tidbit About How Languages Evolve
\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s actually a special word to describe the loss of cases or the merging of two separate cases into one. It\u2019s syncretism. This word describes the loss or reduction of cases in the different languages, which includes Modern Greek, English and German.
\n\n\n\n
Older forms of the three languages originally had more cases but they either melded into fewer cases or fell out of use. In fact, cases seem to be more prominent in older languages – Old English, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin – but they are not as common in languages used today. Instead, we\u2019ve replaced their place in our grammars with our little friend, the preposition.
Coincidentally, when I was ready to schedule this post, Lauren over at Fluent in 3 Months happened to publish a post on how she learns Russian cases and, of course, I had to share
\n\n\n\n
Are you learning a language with a lot of cases? What has your experience been? I\u2019d love to hear about it in the comments!
My name is Shannon Kennedy and I'm the language lover, traveler, and foodie behind Eurolinguiste. I'm also the Resident Polyglot at Drops and the Head Coach of the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge.
\n\n\n",
"page_last_modified": " Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:20:59 GMT"
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"page_name": "Cases | What this word means for language learners | Eurolinguiste",
"page_url": "https://eurolinguiste.com/cases-what-this-word-means-for-language-learners/",
"page_snippet": "Cases. If you\u2019re about to learn a language and you\u2019ve been doing a bit of research, you may have stumbled across this term in your reading. Perhaps it was someone celebrating that their language didn\u2019t have any cases or another complaining that the language they\u2019re studying has too many.Older forms of the three languages originally had more cases but they either melded into fewer cases or fell out of use. In fact, cases seem to be more prominent in older languages \u2013 Old English, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin \u2013 but they are not as common in languages used today. Instead, we\u2019ve replaced their place in our grammars with our little friend, the preposition. ... Coincidentally, when I was ready to schedule this post, Lauren over at Fluent in 3 Months happened to publish a post on how she learns Russian cases and, of course, I had to share [Tweet \u201cIt\u2019s all about flexing your language muscles & using what you know to start speaking.\u201d] There\u2019s actually a special word to describe the loss of cases or the merging of two separate cases into one. It\u2019s syncretism. This word describes the loss or reduction of cases in the different languages, which includes Modern Greek, English and German. Older forms of the three languages originally had more cases but they either melded into fewer cases or fell out of use. But all I cared about was the fact that my grandfather spoke the language, that it sounded pretty, and that it was different than the other languages I had learned. It would be a grand adventure! And then I began hearing the word \u201ccases\u201d come up in my lessons and as I started to realize what I had signed up for, I was already knee-deep in learning Croatian, madly in love with the language and it was too late for me to turn back. So that\u2019s why I want to share what I\u2019ve learnt since then with you. I want to help you make an informed decision when you\u2019re selecting your next language. Different language learners struggle with different aspects of language learning. For some, memorizing vocabulary may be more difficult. For others, absorbing grammar rules may seem impossible. Languages are also unique in that there are certain aspects of each that are more difficult for learners depending on their background and native language. The grammar of languages with a lot of different cases will be much harder for a learner whose language does not have many, while a language with a tonal system, like Chinese, may be difficult for someone who struggles to remember vocabulary since many of the characters sound similar if you don\u2019t have an ear for tones.",
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Cases. If you\u2019re about to learn a language and you\u2019ve been doing a bit of research, you may have stumbled across this term in your reading.
\n\n\n\n
Perhaps it was someone celebrating that their language didn\u2019t have any cases or another complaining that the language they\u2019re studying has too many. Either way, it\u2019s definitely something that gets brought up.
\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re not past the newbie stage in your language, however, you might not know what these things called cases are.
\n\n\n\n
\r\n
\r\n
So what exactly are cases when it comes to language learning?
\n\n\n\n
When I decided to study my first Slavic language, I was completely ignorant of cases and what they would mean for both my grammar and vocabulary studies. If I had known about them, I might have thought about my decision more carefully. But all I cared about was the fact that my grandfather spoke the language, that it sounded pretty, and that it was different than the other languages I had learned.
\n\n\n\n
It would be a grand adventure!
\n\n\n\n
And then I began hearing the word \u201ccases\u201d come up in my lessons and as I started to realize what I had signed up for, I was already knee-deep in learning Croatian, madly in love with the language and it was too late for me to turn back.
\n\n\n\n
So that\u2019s why I want to share what I\u2019ve learnt since then with you. I want to help you make an informed decision when you\u2019re selecting your next language.
\n\n\n\n
Why are cases a big deal?
\n\n\n\n
Different language learners struggle with different aspects of language learning. For some, memorizing vocabulary may be more difficult. For others, absorbing grammar rules may seem impossible.
\n\n\n\n
Languages are also unique in that there are certain aspects of each that are more difficult for learners depending on their background and native language. The grammar of languages with a lot of different cases will be much harder for a learner whose language does not have many, while a language with a tonal system, like Chinese, may be difficult for someone who struggles to remember vocabulary since many of the characters sound similar if you don\u2019t have an ear for tones.
\n\n\n\n
If grammar isn\u2019t your thing, learning a language with several cases might not be for you. But if your love for the language can help you work through it, then by all means go ahead!
\n\n\n\n
As long as cases aren\u2019t something that will deter you from continuing on with the language, they\u2019re not a big deal. But if you really don\u2019t want to spend the time memorizing extra vocabulary and learning the rules surrounding cases, then a language with several of them might not be the right fit for you.
\n\n\n\n
So what are cases?
\n\n\n\n
When you look up the definition of cases, a lot of the material you\u2019ll find contain long and complicated explanations. And when you\u2019re starting to learn a language, long and complicated explanations are one of the things that can quickly deter you from continuing your learning.
\n\n\n\n
The truth is, cases are pretty complicated, but it\u2019s all about approaching them within a context. Trying to memorize the rules and the words that are tied to them in isolation can make that part of learning a language that much harder, so I don\u2019t recommend it.
\n\n\n\n
The word \u201ccase\u201d is derived from the Latin word casus which means \u201cto fall.\u201d It is used to describe words that have fallen away from their nominative, or root form.
\n\n\n\n
Cases are the grammatical function of a noun or pronoun within a phrase, clause, or sentence. To use English as an example, it\u2019s essentially the difference between I and me, he and him, she and her. \u201cI fell in love with him\u201d or \u201cHe fell in love with me.\u201d It helps indicate who or what is doing the action and who or what it\u2019s being done to.
\n\n\n\n
In some languages (*cough* Croatian), the adjectives are also modified to indicate the case being used. In others, only the nouns themselves reflect which case is being used.
\n\n\n\n
What does this mean?
\n\n\n\n
It means that you have to study several versions of every noun you learn in a language with cases. In a language like Croatian ,where you\u2019re already dealing with gender and plural forms of words, cases add a whole new dynamic to the memorization of vocabulary and grasping even basic grammar.
\n\n\n\n
Cases can be pretty intimidating for someone who doesn\u2019t like grammar. Especially since they\u2019re quite important relatively early on. In comparison to a language like, French, where the grammar isn\u2019t too hard at the beginning (for English speakers), a language like Russian is going to challenge you grammatically right from the get-go. You can\u2019t even say something as simple as \u201cI live in the US\u201d or \u201cI am from Ireland\u201d without encountering them. My Croatian teacher even advised me not to try to really delve into the language or learn too much vocabulary until I had a basic understanding of cases!
\n\n\n\n
But please don\u2019t let cases deter you from learning a language if it\u2019s one you really want to pursue. Yes, they\u2019re hard, but they\u2019re not impossible. And once you learn the rules, they become second nature. It may be hard working getting to that point, but once you do, you\u2019ll feel even more rewarded for sticking through it.
\n\n\n\n
What are some of the different cases?
\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve included this section just to provide a description of a few of the different cases. There are, of course, more than what\u2019s listed here, and the descriptions I\u2019ve included are really simplified versions of the rules that surround cases. The ways in which cases are used vary from language to language, and they can be significantly more complex than what\u2019s below.
\n\n\n\n
So why am I including this section? To give you a few, basic examples of cases and how they work.
\n\n\n\n
So let\u2019s take a look at 8 different cases:
\n\n\n\n
Nominative // This case indicates the subject. I love pears.
\n\n\n\n
Accusative // This case indicates the direct object of a verb. My mom loves me.
\n\n\n\n
Dative // This case indicates the indirect object of a verb. My mom bought me some pears.
\n\n\n\n
Ablative // This case indicates movement from something. It can also indicate a cause. She bought them from the store.
\n\n\n\n
Genitive // This case illustrates possession. It also corresponds with the preposition of. My pears were delicious. I enjoyed every bite of the pears.
\n\n\n\n
Vocative // This case indicates who or what is being addressed. Hey, Mom! Thanks for the pears.
Hungarian has a whopping 18 cases and Finnish has 15. Basque, Estonian, Georgian, and Bengali each have more than 10 cases. West Greenlandic has between 8 and 9 depending on who you ask (you can see where this starts to get complicated) while Tamil has 7 or 8. Polish, Czech, Serbian, and Croatian have 7. Latin and Russian have between 5 and 6. Romanian has 5. German, Icelandic, and Modern Greek have 4.
\n\n\n\n
You should also take into consideration something that I mentioned above. In some languages, like Icelandic and Croatian, cases not only change the noun but they can also modify the articles, adjectives, and personal names.
Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Dutch, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Indonesian are among some of the languages that don\u2019t have cases.
\n\n\n\n
Want to avoid cases in a language that has them?
\n\n\n\n
To a certain degree of course, there are two ways to do this. They may not eliminate the need to use cases entirely, but they just might cut down the number you need to express your thoughts.
\n\n\n\n
One way is by throwing in a preposition. In another language, changing the sentence from \u201cMy mom gave me some pears\u201d to or from \u201cmy mom gave some pears to me\u201d can make your life simpler.
\n\n\n\n
Another is by changing the word order. Again. \u201cThe pears were given to me by my mom\u201d as opposed to \u201cmy mom gave me some pears\u201d can make a huge difference your ability to form sentences.
\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s all about flexing your language muscles and using what you know to construct the things you\u2019d like to say. Sometimes that means going at it in a round about way. And that\u2019s okay as long as you\u2019re saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
\n\n\n\n[Tweet “It\u2019s all about flexing your language muscles & using what you know to start speaking.”]\n\n\n\n
An Interesting Little Tidbit About How Languages Evolve
\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s actually a special word to describe the loss of cases or the merging of two separate cases into one. It\u2019s syncretism. This word describes the loss or reduction of cases in the different languages, which includes Modern Greek, English and German.
\n\n\n\n
Older forms of the three languages originally had more cases but they either melded into fewer cases or fell out of use. In fact, cases seem to be more prominent in older languages – Old English, Sanskrit, Ancient Greek, Latin – but they are not as common in languages used today. Instead, we\u2019ve replaced their place in our grammars with our little friend, the preposition.
Coincidentally, when I was ready to schedule this post, Lauren over at Fluent in 3 Months happened to publish a post on how she learns Russian cases and, of course, I had to share
\n\n\n\n
Are you learning a language with a lot of cases? What has your experience been? I\u2019d love to hear about it in the comments!
My name is Shannon Kennedy and I'm the language lover, traveler, and foodie behind Eurolinguiste. I'm also the Resident Polyglot at Drops and the Head Coach of the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge.
\n\n\n",
"page_last_modified": " Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:20:59 GMT"
},
{
"page_name": "The Cases in English | Department of Classics",
"page_url": "https://classics.osu.edu/Undergraduate-Studies/Latin-Program/Grammar/Cases/English-Case",
"page_snippet": "The Cases in EnglishAs in Latin, so in English "case" refers to a change in the form of a word which indicates how that word is used in a sentence, that is, how it relates syntactically to other words in the sentence. In English, the only words that are marked formally are pronouns and the ...The Cases in EnglishAs in Latin, so in English \"case\" refers to a change in the form of a word which indicates how that word is used in a sentence, that is, how it relates syntactically to other words in the sentence. In English, the only words that are marked formally are pronouns and the \"declension\" of pronouns shows three cases: The subject case, the object case, and the possessive case. As a result, it seems to us more accurate to speak of the cases in English as: subject, object (including direct object, indirect object, and object of the preposition), and possessive cases. The subject is the person or thing about which a statement is made. If the verb that makes the statement (the predicate) is active, then the subject (the subject of the verb) is the person or thing that is doing something: \"He came. If the verb that makes the statement (the predicate) is active, then the subject (the subject of the verb) is the person or thing that is doing something: \"He came. He saw. He conquered.\" If the verb that makes the statement is passive, then the subject is the person or thing that is affected by the action: \"The Helvetii were conquered by Caesar; Caesar was killed by Brutus.\" In English, the object case is primarily used to express three syntactical relationships: 1. direct object, 2. indirect object, and 3. object of prepositions. One should be careful, however, not to think that the possessive case only indicates material or legal possession. Originally it was as flexible as the genitive case in Latin, and as a result may still in English indicate relationships that are more subtle or complex than ownership.",
"page_result": "\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The Cases in English | Department of Classics\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n \n \n Skip to main content\n \n \n
As in Latin, so in English \"case\" refers to a change in the form of a word which indicates how that word is used in a sentence, that is, how it relates syntactically to other words in the sentence. In English, the only words that are marked formally are pronouns and the \"declension\" of pronouns shows three cases: The subject case, the object case, and the possessive case. Examples: \"I, me, my/mine\" and \"he, him, his.\" Other words distinguish their syntactic usage within a sentence by their word position. Examples: \"Man bites Dog\" and \"Henry gave Sam Mary.\"
Nevertheless, English Cases are often taught by their Latin names. It is agreed that there is no \"Ablative\" in English (although there is an \"Instrumental Case\") but English grammars often keep the Dative in addition to the Accusative, thereby creating the following four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative. However, the Dative case is really indistinguishable from the accusative case: \"I gave him the book\" (\"him\" is Dative) or \"I saw him.\" (\"him\" is Accusative). (See how the loss of a distinct dative affects English verbs.) As a result, it seems to us more accurate to speak of the cases in English as: subject, object (including direct object, indirect object, and object of the preposition), and possessive cases.
The subject is the person or thing about which a statement is made. If the verb that makes the statement (the predicate) is active, then the subject (the subject of the verb) is the person or thing that is doing something: \"He came. He saw. He conquered.\" If the verb that makes the statement is passive, then the subject is the person or thing that is affected by the action: \"The Helvetii were conquered by Caesar; Caesar was killed by Brutus.\"
In English, the object case is primarily used to express three syntactical relationships: 1. direct object, 2. indirect object, and 3. object of prepositions. In Latin these functions are expressed by 1. the Accusative Case, 2. the Dative Case and 3. the Ablative or Accusative case (depending on the preposition).
The direct object is the person or thing directly affected by the action of an active verb. \"He drove the car.\" The action is \"driving\" and the thing directly affected is \"the car.\" NOTE: Whenever a verb has a direct object it is called a transitive verb. Not all verbs are transitive, however. Consider the following: \"I run quickly.\" Here, running is an activity by itself; it does not affect any other person or thing. The verb is intransitive. Intransitive verbs do not have direct objects. However, the same verb with a different meaning can be transitive: \"I run the store when my father is away.\" Since \"run\" now has a direct object, it is considered a transitive verb. Here is another example: \"I gave away the book.\" Here, \"the book\" is directly affected by the giving and so it is the direct object. In Latin, the direct object is always put in the accusative case.
Readers of Latin distinguish the direct object from the indirect object. The indirect object is the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb. Consider a variation on the last sentence above: \"I gave him the book.\" (Or, the same thing: \"I gave the book to him.\") \"The book\" is still the direct object (directly affected by the \"giving\"), but we have added a person indirectly affected by the giving: \"him.\" \"Him\" is the indirect object. In this case, it is the beneficiary of the giving. Suppose on the other hand, the person indirectly affected was hurt by the action: \"I gave him the finger.\" Here we have the indirect object used to describe the person disadvantaged by the giving. In Latin, the indirect object is always put into the dative case, but the Latin Dative Case has greater flexibility and more functions than the indirect object function in English.
The possessive case only really exists in English in the personal pronouns: my, mine; your, yours; his, her, hers, its; our, ours, your, yours, and their, theirs. These are truly inflected possessive forms. Elsewhere we use \"apostrophe s\" ['s] to mark the \"possessive case.\" Historically this is just a contraction of \"his\" as in \"Shakespeare his wife was born in Stratford\" becoming \"Shakespeare's wife....\" In English this case is used almost exclusively for possession: \"my book\" or \"his house\"; or for relationships that are like possession: \"our lesson\" and \"their god.\" One should be careful, however, not to think that the possessive case only indicates material or legal possession. Originally it was as flexible as the genitive case in Latin, and as a result may still in English indicate relationships that are more subtle or complex than ownership. Consider: \"my mother\" ... surely, I don't own her in any literal way. Similarly, \"my love\" or \"my friend.\" These are not \"ownership\" relationships (or so we hope -- as always, grammar is not precise about content). The potential complexity of these \"possessive\" relationships may become clear if you consider that the alternative form for \"possession\" in English uses the preposition \"of\" -- \"the country of the Helvetii\" or \"the leader of the Catholics.\" This preposition is actually very similar to the Latin genitive case in the way that it can express a number of different types of relationships. Here are a few to think about: The Driver of the Bus; The love of God; My love of God; Rivers of milk and honey.
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\n \n 2\n \n \n \n \n \n Neither is incorrect, but I think the first one sounds more natural, and I would guess it's more common as well.\n \n \n– J.R.\n♦ \n Jul 21, 2013 at 20:40\n \n \n \n \n \n \n - \n
\n \n 1\n \n \n \n \n \n J.R. Yes, and in natural conversation the question and answer will normally be contracted: Where're you from? (which often will sound almost identical to Where you from?). Answer: I'm from ... .\n \n \n– Shoe\n \n Jul 22, 2013 at 7:03\n \n \n \n \n \n \n - \n
\n \n \n \n \n \n \n Note that while the first is more common, the second is used and would not seem puzzling or awkward.\n \n \n– Jay\n \n Jul 22, 2013 at 13:57\n \n \n \n\n
\n\t