Scribd
Upload
87 views

What Is The Dative Case?

The dative case is a grammatical case that shows the relationship of an indirect object to a verb. It indicates the recipient of the direct object. Examples include "He gave an assignment to me" where "me" is the indirect object in the dative case. The dative case is used for nouns or pronouns that are indirect objects, receiving the action of the verb but not being directly acted upon. It is one type of objective case in English grammar.

Uploaded by

craig tolfree
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
87 views

What Is The Dative Case?

The dative case is a grammatical case that shows the relationship of an indirect object to a verb. It indicates the recipient of the direct object. Examples include "He gave an assignment to me" where "me" is the indirect object in the dative case. The dative case is used for nouns or pronouns that are indirect objects, receiving the action of the verb but not being directly acted upon. It is one type of objective case in English grammar.

Uploaded by

craig tolfree
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

What is the Dative Case?

What does dative case mean? The dative case is a grammatical case


for nouns and pronouns. The case shows a noun’s or pronoun’s relationship to other words
in the sentence.
The dative case shows the relationship of an indirect object to a verb.
An indirect object is the recipient of a direct object. The indirect object receives the direct
object.
Dative Case Examples:
 He gave an assignment to me.
 Verb: gave
 Direct object: an assignment
 indirect object in the dative case: me
 He wrote the letter for her.
 Verb: wrote
 Direct object: the letter
 Indirect object in the dative case: her
Intro to Cases: What is Grammatical Case?
An English grammatical case shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to other words
in a sentence. There are four main cases in English.

Nominative Case
What is the nominative case? The nominative case refers to the case used for a noun or
pronoun when it is the subject of a verb.
 I forgot my watch.
 Subject/Nominative case: I
 Verb: forgot
Genitive Case
What is the genitive case? The genitive case refers to the case used for a noun,
pronoun, or adjective to show ownership.
 I forgot my watch.
 Possessive pronoun/Genitive case: my
Accusative Case
What is the accusative case? The accusative case refers to the case used for a noun or
pronoun that is a direct object.
 I forgot my watch
 Verb: forgot
 Direct object: watch
Dative Case
What is the dative case? The dative case refers to the case used for a noun or pronoun
that is an indirect object.
 You gave a watch to him.
 Verb: gave
 Direct object: a watch
 Indirect object in the dative case: him
Dative vs. Nominative Case
The nominative case refers to the case used for a noun or pronoun when it is the subject of
a verb. The nominative case uses nouns and pronouns as subjects. The nominative case
is also called the subjective case.

The dative case refers to the case used for a noun or pronoun that is an indirect object.
The dative case uses noun and pronouns as objects. The dative case is also called one of
the objective cases.

Notice the difference between the sentences below. The subjects and indirect objects
change depending on their use in the nominative or dative case.

 She gave a bracelet to him.


 Subject in the nominative case: she
 Verb: gave
 Direct object: a bracelet
 Indirect object in the dative case: him
 He gave a bracelet to her.
 Subject in the nominative case: he
 Verb: gave
 Direct object: a bracelet
 Indirect object in the dative case: her
Prepositions Can Take the Dative Case
Prepositions can take the dative case because they generally introduce indirect objects.

The nouns and pronouns in the dative case are often objects of a preposition. The object
of a preposition is the noun or pronoun that receives the preposition. Together the
preposition and its object create a prepositional phrase.
Example:
 We built a desk for them.
 Indirect object in the dative case (also object of the preposition): them
 Preposition in the dative case: for
 Prepositional phrase: for them
Summary: What is the Dative Case?
Define dative case: the definition of dative case is a grammatical case denoting the
indirect object of a verb.
To sum up, the dative case:

 is an English grammatical case


 is a type of objective case
 refers to nouns or pronouns used as indirect objects

You might also like