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Glite Dictionary
dative case

dative case

9.1
A noun form that shows the person who receives something or benefits from an action
  • noun
  • /ˈdeɪtɪv keɪs/
  • Specialized
translation icon : caso dativo
  • In many languages, the dative case is used to show to whom something is given.

So I'm going to go through some of the most important uses of the dative case, and then we'll take questions.

Examples

  • Learning how to identify the dative case in sentences can help students understand indirect objects better.

  • So I'm going to go through some of the most important uses of the dative case, and then we'll take questions.

    MIT OpenCourseWare

  • The teacher explained that the dative case indicates the recipient of an action in a sentence.

Synonyms

dative
vsdative case
  • Specialized
1 9.5

A case showing who or what gets something

applies specifically to nouns functioning as indirect objects of verbs

Surface Forms

dative case singular
dative cases plural

Morphology

dative + case

The phrase is a direct compound of 'dative' (indicating recipient/indirect object) and 'case' (a grammatical category), so its meaning as the grammatical case for indirect objects is transparently derivable from its parts. This concept is cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows both constituent words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Dative case comes from a Latin word meaning 'to give', because it was used for the noun that receives something. That's why the dative case today shows the noun that is the 'indirect object' — the person or thing getting something in the sentence.