Word.ws English Dictionary

dative cases

dative cases is the plural of dative case.

Meaning of dative case

Noun

dative case (plural dative cases)

  1. Case used to express direction towards an indirect object, the recipient or beneficiary of an action, and is generally indicated in English by to (when a recipient) or for (when a beneficiary) with the objective case. The direct object may be either stated or unstated where the indirect object is the beneficiary of the verbal action, but is stated where the indirect object is a recipient. If there is emphasis on the indirect object, the indirect object usually precedes the direct object and is not usually indicated with to or for; said structure is also used when neither object is being emphasized.

Questions about dative cases

What is dative cases the plural of?
Dative cases is the plural of dative case.

Words near dative cases in the dictionary

  1. dative alternation
  2. dative alternations
  3. dative bond
  4. dative bonds
  5. dative case
  6. dative cases
  7. dative executor
  8. dative executors
  9. dative of purpose
  10. dative shift
  11. dative shifts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dative cases (page history and authors); dative case (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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