Dative Case - Slavic Languages

Slavic Languages

In Russian, the dative case is used to indicate the indirect object of an action (that to which something is given, thrown, read, etc.). In the instance where a person is the goal of motion, dative is used instead of accusative to indicate motion toward. This is usually achieved with the preposition "κ" + destination in dative case; К врачу, meaning 'to the doctor'.

Dative is also the necessary case taken by certain prepositions when expressing certain ideas. For instance, when the preposition по is used to mean "along", its object is always in dative case as with, По бокам, 'along the sides'.

Other Slavic languages apply the dative case (and the other cases) more or less the same way as does Russian, some languages may use the dative in other ways. The following examples are from Polish:

• after certain verbs (dziękować komuś "to thank someone", pomóc komuś "to help someone", wierzyć komuś "to believe someone")
• in certain expressions (Czy podoba ci się piosenka? "Do you like the song?", Jest mi zimno "I'm cold", Jest nam smutno "We're feeling sad", Będzie wam trudniej... "It will be more difficult for you guys"), Śniło jej się, że... "She dreamt that")
• dativus commodi to indicate action for somebody (Zbuduję temu człowiekowi dom "I will build a house for this person")
• when something is taken away or something occurs to someone (Zdechł im pies "Their dog died", Zabrali mu komputer "They took away his computer", Zepsuł nam się samochód "Our car broke down", Coś mi się przypomniało "I just remembered something")

Other kinds of dative case are also used in Serbo-Croatian language: Dativus finalis (Titaniku u pomoć "to Titanic's rescue"), Dativus commodi/incommodi (Operi svojoj majci suđe "Wash the dishes for your mother"), Dativus possessivus (Ovcama je dlaka gusta "Sheeps' hair is thick"), Dativus ethicus (Шта ми ради Бони? "What is Boni doing? (I am especially interested in what it is)") and Dativus auctoris (Izgleda mi okej "It seems okay to me").

Unusual in other Indo-European branches but common among Slavic languages, endings of nouns and adjectives are different. Other factors are gender and number. In some cases, the ending may not be obvious, even when those three factors are considered. That is, in Polish, syn ("son") and ojciec ("father") are both masculine singular nouns, but syn → synowi and ojciec → ojcu.