In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink" or "Maria gave a drink to Jacob". In this example, with a suffix of "o" to the name "Jacob", the dative marks what would be considered the indirect object of a verb in English.
Sometimes the dative has functions unrelated to giving. In Scottish Gaelic and Irish, the term dative case is used in traditional grammars to refer to the prepositional case-marking of nouns following simple prepositions and the definite article. In Georgian and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu), the dative case can also mark the subject of a sentence.Bhatt, Rajesh (2003). Experiencer subjects. Handout from MIT course "Structure of the Modern Indo-Aryan Languages". This is called the dative construction. In Hindi, the dative construction is not limited to only certain verbs or tenses and it can be used with any verb in any tense or mood.
The dative was common among early Indo-European languages and has survived to the present in the Balto-Slavic branch, the Germanic branch, Albanian and others. It also exists in similar forms in several non-Indo-European languages, such as the Uralic family of languages. In some languages, the dative case has assimilated the functions of other, now extinct cases. In Ancient Greek, the dative has the functions of the Proto-Indo-European locative and instrumental as well as those of the original dative.
Under the influence of English, which uses the preposition "to" for (among other uses) both indirect objects (give to) and directions of movement (go to), the term "dative" has sometimes been used to describe cases that in other languages would more appropriately be called lative.
Etymology "Dative" comes from Latin cāsus datīvus ("case for giving"), a translation of Greek δοτικὴ πτῶσις, dotikē ptôsis ("inflection for giving"). Dionysius Thrax in his The Art of Grammar also refers to it as epistaltikḗ "for sending (a letter)",Dionysius Thrax. τέχνη γραμματική (Art of Grammar), section ιβ´ (10b): περὶ ὀνόματος (On the noun). Bibliotheca Augustana. from the verb epistéllō "send to", a word from the same root as epistle.
English The Old English language had a dative case; however, the English case system gradually fell into disuse during the Middle English period, when the accusative and dative of pronouns merged into a single oblique case that was also used with all prepositions. This conflation of case in Middle and Modern English has led most modern grammarians to discard the "accusative" and "dative" labels as obsolete in reference to English, often using the term "objective" for oblique.
Set expressions The dative case is rare in modern English usage, but it can be argued that it survives in a few set expressions. One example is the word "methinks", with the meaning "it seems to me". It survives in this fixed form from Old English (having undergone, however, phonetic changes with the rest of the language), in which it was constructed as "[it]" + "me" (the dative case of the personal pronoun) + "thinks" (i.e., "seems", < Old English þyncan, "to seem", a verb closely related to the verb þencan, "to think", but distinct from it in Old English; later it merged with "think" and lost this meaning).
Relic pronouns The modern objective case pronoun whom is derived from the dative case in Old English, specifically the Old English dative pronoun "hwām" (as opposed to the modern subjective "who", which descends from Old English "hwā") – though "whom" also absorbed the functions of the Old English accusative pronoun "hwone". It is also cognate to the word "wem" (the dative form of "wer") in German. The OED defines all classical uses of the word "whom" in situations where the indirect object is not known – in effect, indicating the anonymity of the indirect object.
Likewise, some of the object forms of personal pronouns are remnants of Old English datives. For example, "him" goes back to the Old English dative him (accusative was hine), and "her" goes back to the dative hire (accusative was hīe). These pronouns are not pure datives in modern English; they are also used for functions previously indicated by the accusative.
Modern English The indirect object of the verb may be placed between the verb and the direct object of the verb: "he gave me a book" or "he wrote me a poem."
The indirect object may also be expressed using a prepositional phrase using "to": "he gave a book to me".
German In general, the dative () is used to mark the indirect object of a German sentence.
For example: (literally: I sent "to the man" the book.) – Masculine (literally: I gave "to the woman" the pencil back.) – Feminine (literally: I hand "to the child" a present.) – Neuter
In English, the first sentence can be rendered as "I sent the book to the man" and as "I sent the man the book", where the indirect object is identified in English by standing in front of the direct object. The normal word order in German is to put the dative in front of the accusative (as in the example above). However, since the German dative is marked in form, it can also be put after the accusative: . The after and signifies a now largely archaic ending for certain nouns in the dative. It survives today almost exclusively in set phrases such as (at home, lit. to house), (in the course of), and (during the day, lit. at the day), as well as in occasional usage in formal prose, poetry, and song lyrics.
Some masculine nouns (and one neuter noun, [heart]), referred to as weak nouns or n-nouns, take an -n or -en in the dative singular and plural. Many are masculine nouns ending in -e in the nominative (such as [name], [officer], and [boy]), although not all such nouns follow this rule. Many also, whether or not they fall into the former category, refer to people, animals, professions, or titles; exceptions to this include the aforementioned and , as well as (letter), (peace), (obelisk), (planet), and others.
Certain German prepositions require the dative: (from), (out of), (at, near), (against), (opposite), (with), (after, to), (since), (from), and (at, in, to). Some other prepositions ( [at], [on], [along], [behind], [in, into], (beside, next to), [over, across], [under, below], [in front of], and [among, between]) may be used with dative (indicating current location), or accusative (indicating direction toward something). (dative: The book is lying on the table), but (accusative: I put the book onto the table).
In addition the four prepositions (in place of), (in spite of), (during), and (because of) which require the genitive in modern formal language, are most commonly used with the dative in colloquial German. For example, "because of the weather" is expressed as instead of the formally correct . Other prepositions requiring the genitive in formal language, are combined with ("of") in colloquial style, e.g. instead of ("outside the garden").
The concept of an indirect object may be rendered by a prepositional phrase. In this case, the noun's or pronoun's case is determined by the preposition, not by its function in the sentence. Consider this sentence: 'I sent the book to the editor.' Here, the subject, , is in the nominative case, the direct object, , is in the accusative case, and is in the dative case, since always requires the dative ( is a contraction of + ). However: (accusative) . 'I forwarded the book to my friend.' ( = lit.: to give further). In this sentence, is the indirect object, but, because it follows (direction), the accusative is required, not the dative.
All of the articles change in the dative case. Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Definite article dem der dem den Indefinite article einem einer einem Ø (the semantically closest word would be einigen, dative plural of einig) Negative articles keinem keiner keinem keinen
Some German verbs require the dative for their direct objects. Common examples are antworten (to answer), danken (to thank), gefallen (to please), folgen (to follow), glauben (to believe), helfen (to help), and raten (to advise). In each case, the direct object of the verb is rendered in the dative. For example: Meine Freunde helfen mir. (My friends help me.)
These verbs cannot be used in normal passive constructions, because German allows these only for verbs with accusative objects. It is therefore ungrammatical to say: *Ich werde geholfen. "I am helped." Instead a special construction called "impersonal passive" must be used: Mir wird geholfen, literally: "To me is helped." A colloquial (non-standard) way to form the passive voice for dative verbs is the following: Ich kriege geholfen, or: Ich bekomme geholfen, literally: "I get helped". The use of the verb "to get" here reminds us that the dative case has something to do with giving and receiving. In German, help is not something you perform on somebody, but rather something you offer them.
The dative case is also used with reflexive (sich) verbs when specifying what part of the self the verb is being done to: Ich wasche mich. – accusative (I wash myself.) Ich wasche mir die Hände. – dative (I wash my hands, literally "I wash for myself the hands") Cf. the respective accord in French: "" ("The children have washed themselves") vs. " [uninflected] " ("... their hands").
German can use two datives to make sentences like: Sei mir meinem Sohn(e) gnädig! "For my sake, have mercy on my son!" Literally: "Be for me to my son merciful." The first dative mir ("for me") expresses the speaker's commiseration (much like the dativus ethicus in Latin, see below). The second dative meinem Sohn(e) ("to my son") names the actual object of the plea. Mercy is to be given to the son for or on behalf of his mother/father.
Adjective endings also change in the dative case. There are three inflection possibilities depending on what precedes the adjective. They most commonly use weak inflection when preceded by a definite article (the), mixed inflection after an indefinite article (a/an), and strong inflection when a quantity is indicated (many green apples). Adj. in dative case Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural Weak inflection -en -en -en -en Mixed inflection -en -en -en -en Strong inflection -em -er -em -en
Latin
There are several uses for the dative case (): (dative of purpose), e.g. – "[we learn] not for school, but for life", – "to call for help", – "I'm coming for help", – "I receive [this] as a gift" or – "[this] is for the girl's decoration", or "... for decoration for the girl" (as could be either dative or genitive) , which means action for (or against) somebody, e.g., – "to till fields for Greeks"; Combination of and (double dative): "to you for joy" (possessive dative) which means possession, e.g. – literally "to (or for) the angels are wings", this is typically found with a copula and translated as "angels have wings". (ethic dative) indicates that the person in the dative is or should be especially concerned about the action, e.g. "What is Celsus doing for me?" (expressing the speaker being especially interested in what Celsus is doing for him or her); or "Whose interest does this serve?" (literally "To whom does this do good?") , meaning; 'in the eyes of', e.g., 'he seems to me to be a good man'. The dative expresses agency with the gerundive when the gerundive is used to convey obligation or necessity, e.g., , 'these things must be done by us.'
Greek
Ancient In addition to its main function as the dativus, the dative case has other functions in Classical Greek.Morwood, James. Oxford Grammar of Classical Greek. Oxford University Press, 2002. ()
The chart below uses the Latin names for the types of dative; the Greek name for the dative is δοτική πτῶσις, like its Latin equivalent, derived from the verb "to give"; in Ancient Greek, .