dative case
DAY-tiv kays/ˈdeɪtɪv ˌkeɪs/
Pluraldative cases
- 1The grammatical case that marks an indirect object, the recipient or beneficiary of an action; in English it is usually shown with to or for, or by word order.
Several common German prepositions, such as von and mit, are always followed by the dative case.
Students of Latin learn early that the person who receives a gift goes in the dative case.
Note
English has no dative ending of its own, so it marks the case with word order or a preposition. With the indirect object first, no preposition is needed: she gave the dog a bone, he baked her a cake. Placed second, it takes to for a recipient and for for a beneficiary, and only a beneficiary lets the direct object go unsaid: he baked for her.
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