In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or an abstract concept. This is a list of cases as they are used by various inflectional languages that have declension. ... In linguistics, the Abessive case is a noun case expressing the lack and absence of something. ... For the physical process, see ablation. ... In ergative-absolutive languages, the absolutive is the grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb. ... The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a verb. ... In the Finnish language, Estonian language and Hungarian language the adessive case is the fourth of the locative cases with the basic meaning of on. For example, Estonian laud (table) and laual (on the table), Hungarian asztal and asztalon (on the table). ... The adverbial case is a noun case in the Abkhaz language and Georgian language that has function similar to the translative and essive cases. ... In the Finnish language, the Allative case is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of onto. Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). ... The aversive case is a grammatical case found in Australian languages that indicates that the marked noun is avoided or feared. ... The benefactive case is a case used where English would use for, for the benefit of, or intended for. ... In linguistics, the Abessive case is a noun case expressing the lack and absence of something. ... The causal or causative case (abbreviated CAUS) is a grammatical case that indicates that the marked noun is the cause or reason for something. ... This case in Hungarian language combines the Causal case and the Final case: it can express the cause of emotions (eg. ... The Comitative case is used where English would use in company with or together with. It, and many other cases, are found in the Finnish language, the Hungarian language, and the Estonian language. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... The delative case in the Hungarian language can originally express the movement from the surface of something (eg. ... The disjunctive case is a grammatical case in French, where (like other cases) it has a distinct form only for pronouns. ... This case in Hungarian language can express the manner when something happens to each member of a set one by one (eg. ... This case in Hungarian language can express how often something happens (eg. ... Elative is a locative case with the basic meaning out of. In Finnish elative is typically formed by adding sta/stä, in Estonian - st to the genitive stem. ... The essive or similaris case carries the meaning of a temporary state of being, often equivalent to the English as a. ... In Hungarian language this case combines the Essive case and the Formal case, and it can express the position, task, state (eg. ... This case in Hungarian language can express the state, capacity, task in which somebody is or which somebody has (Essive case, eg. ... The excessive case is a grammatical case, which denotes a transition away from a state. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... Illative case in the Finno-Ugric languages Illative is, in the Finnish language, Estonian language and the Hungarian language, the third of the locative cases with the basic meaning of into (the inside of). An example from Hungarian would be a házba (into the house). ... Inessive case is a locative grammatical case. ... In the Finnish language, the instructive case has the basic meaning of by means of. It is a comparatively rarely used case, though it is found in some commonly used expressions, such as omin silmin -> with ones own eyes. In modern Finnish, many of its instrumental uses are being... Lative is a case which indicates motion to a location. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... In linguistics (or generally in the linguistic sciences), an oblique case (Lat. ... An objective pronoun functions as the target of a verb, as distinguished from a subjective pronoun, which is the initiator of a verb. ... The basic meaning of the Partitive case is partialness, without result or without specifying identity. In the Finnish language, its used to express unknown identities and irresultative actions. ... Possessive case is a case that exists in some languages used for possession. ... In a passive sentence, when we want to say when or where something happens, we use a phrase that asks for details about the action. ... Prepositional case is a grammatical case that marks prepositions. ... In linguistics, the Abessive case is a noun case expressing the lack and absence of something. ... The prolative case is a declension of a noun or pronoun that has the basic meaning of by way of. The prolative is widely used in Estonian. ... The prosecutive case is a declension found in Tundra Nenets language. ... This case in Hungarian language can express the person in whose company (cf. ... The subessive case is a case indicating location under or below. ... This case in Hungarian language can express the destination of the movement, originally to the surface of something (eg. ... The Superessive case is a grammatical declension indicating location on top of something. ... The temporal case in morphology is used to indicate a time. ... In morphology, the terminative case is a case that indicates to what point; where something ends. ... This declension (case) indicates a change in state of a noun, with the general sense of becoming X or change to X. In the Finnish language, this is the counterpart of the Essive case, with the basic meaning of a change of state. ... The vialis case is found in Eskimo languages. ... The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person (animal, object, etc. ... In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the system used to distinguish between the arguments of transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. ... In ergative-absolutive languages, the absolutive is the grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb. ... The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a verb. ... In ergative-absolutive languages, the ergative case identifies the subject of a transitive verb. ... This case in Hungarian language contains the Instrumental case and the Comitative case at the same time. ... The tone of this article is inappropriate for an encyclopedia article. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... In linguistics, declension is a paradigm of inflected nouns. ... The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to modern German or Icelandic. ... German declension is the declensional system of the German language. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Latin grammar. ... See also: Slovak language. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ...

For example, in this Latin sentence:

librum stylo scripsi.

the inflection of the noun indicates its instrumental role -- the nominative stylus changes to the ablative (the ablative of means) stylo. English, lacking an instrumental case, might use a preposition (usually with) to express the same meaning: Inflection or inflexion refers to a modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) so that it reflects grammatical (i. ... The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... For the physical process, see ablation. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with adposition. ...

I wrote the book with a pen.

However, such a sentence structure is often altogether avoided in English by transforming the noun into a past-tense verb, e.g. "I penned the book."

The instrumental case appears in Old English, Georgian, Sanskrit, and the Balto-Slavic languages. An instrumental/comitative case is arguably present in Turkish and other Altaic languages. Also, Uralic languages reuse the adessive case where available, or locative case if not, to mark the same category. For example, the Finnish kirjoitan kynällä does not mean "I write on a pen", but "I write using a pen", even if the adessive -llä is used. In Ob-Ugric languages, the same category may also mark agents with verbs that use an ergative alignment, like "I give you, using a pen". Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Sanskrit ( संस्कृतम् ; pronunciation: ) is an Indo-European classical language of India and a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. ... The Balto-Slavic language group is a hypothetical language group consisting of the Baltic and Slavic language subgroups of the Indo-European family. ... The Comitative case is used where English would use in company with or together with. It, and many other cases, are found in the Finnish language, the Hungarian language, and the Estonian language. ... Altaic is a putative language family which would include 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around central Asia. ... In the Finnish language, Estonian language and Hungarian language the adessive case is the fourth of the locative cases with the basic meaning of on. For example, Estonian laud (table) and laual (on the table), Hungarian asztal and asztalon (on the table). ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ...

The instrumental case is most notably used in Russian, where the case is called tvoritelnij padezh ("Творительный падеж"). Though exceptions exist, the instrumental case in Russian can generally be distinguished by the -ом ("-om") suffix for most masculine and neuter nouns, and the -oй ("-oy") suffix for most feminine nouns. For example, in the sentence "я написал письмо ручкой" (ya napisal pis'mo ruchkoy), which means "I wrote the letter with (or by means of) a pen," the word Ручка (Ruchka, "pen") is in the instrumental case, as noted by the conversion of the feminine suffix -а to -oй.

However, it should be noted that in Russian, as with many Slavic languages, the instrumental case is not only used to denote the mean of a certain action, but also: The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia. ...

• to denote a time where an action occurs ("during"). For example, in the sentence "я работаю утром" (ya rabotayu utrom), which means "I work during the day," the word утро (utro, "day, morning") in its instrumental case denotes the time in which the action (in the case of this example, "working") takes place ("during the day").

• to denote a change of status. For example, in the sentence "я устал американском гражданином сегодня" (ya ustal amerikanskom grazhdaninom sevodnya), which means "I became an American citizen today," the word гражданин (grazhdanin, "citizen") is used in the instrumental case because it denotes a change of status (in this case, possibly from an immigrant to a citizen). However, it's not exclusively used with with стать (stat', "to become"), but also other verbs too. For example, "я разбудил больным сегодня" (Ya razbudil bol'nym sevodnya) means "I woke up sick today" ("больным" is the instrumental of "болен" (bolen), "sick").

• to emphasize an attribute or profession, where in English "as" would be used. For example, "Я работаю переводчиком" (Ya rabotayu perevodchikom) means "I work as a translator" (contrast this with "я - переводчик" (Ya - perevodchik), which means "I'm a translator").
  • (Logically speaking, the profession is the mean by which one does his or her job, hence the reason it's deployed in the instrumental case.)

Though the instrumental language does not exist in many languages, some languages use other cases to denote the mean, or instrument, of an action. In Classical Greek, for example, the dative case is used as the instrumental case. This can be seen in the sentence "..με κτείνει δόλῳ," or "..me ktenei dolôi" (Book IX, line 407 of the Odyssey), which means "he kills me with a bait." Here, "δόλῳ," the dative of "δόλος" ("dolos" - a bait) is used as the instrumental case (the mean or instrument here is, obviously, the bait). In addition to Classical Greek, Latin also uses one of its cases (the ablative case) as the instrumental case, as seen in earlier in this article. The History of Greece extends back to the arrival of the Greeks in Europe some time before 1500 BC, even though there has only been an independent state called Greece since Turkey, Italy and Libya. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation). ...

Sources

• Instrumental Case in Tamil language
• The Instrumental Case in Russian language
• What is instrumental case?
• Prepositions Governing the Instrumental Case in Russian

External links

• Instrumental Case In Russian