Cases and endings
Latvian marks a word’s job in the sentence by changing its ending. That change is a case.
The seven cases
- Nominative
- who? what? The dictionary form. The subject.
- Genitive
- whose? of what? Possession, of, after some prepositions.
- Dative
- to whom? for whom? The person something is given or meant for.
- Accusative
- whom? what? The object of the verb.
- Instrumental
- with what? Means or company. Often ar plus this form.
- Locative
- where? in what? Place or time: in, on, at.
- Vocative
- calling someone Addressing a person. Often like the nominative.
Endings
Singular noun endings. 1 masculine -s / -š. 2 -is. 3 -us. 4 feminine -a. 5 -e. 6 feminine -s.
Case
1
2
3
4
5
6
Nom
-s / -š
-is
-us
-a
-e
-s
Gen
-a
-a
-us
-as
-es
-s
Dat
-am
-im
-um
-ai
-ei
-ij
Acc
-u
-i
-u
-u
-i
-i
Ins
-u
-i
-u
-u
-i
-i
Loc
-ā
-ī
-ū
-ā
-ē
-ī
Voc
-s / -š
-i
-us
-a
-e
-s
Back to the Latvian path.