Cases
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Cases
Ekspi uses three grammatical cases to show the role of a noun or noun phrase in a sentence.
The three cases are:
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
1. Nominative Case
The nominative is the basic form of a noun.
It is used mainly for the subject of a sentence.
The nominative has no case ending.
Noun stem
mar = house
mari = houses
2. Accusative Case
The accusative marks the direct object of a verb.
The accusative ending is -en.
Noun + -en
maren = house (accusative)
mareni = houses (accusative)
The accusative ending comes before the plural ending.
3. Genitive Case
The genitive expresses possession and other “of” relationships.
The genitive ending is -ej.
Noun + -ej
marej = of the house
mareji = of the houses
The genitive ending also comes before the plural ending.
4. Case and Plural
When a noun is plural, the plural ending -i comes after the case ending.
The basic pattern is:
noun stem + case ending + plural ending
Case | Singular | Plural |
Nominative | mar | mari |
Accusative | maren | mareni |
Genitive | marej | mareji |
5. Case with the Definite Article
The definite article l’ does not change for case or number.
Only the noun changes.
l’mar = the house
l’mari = the houses
l’maren = the house (accusative)
l’mareni = the houses (accusative)
l’marej = of the house
l’mareji = of the houses
6. Pronouns
Pronouns follow the case system, but because they end in vowels, they use -len for the accusative and -lej for the genitive.
For example:
eu = I
eulen = me
eulej = my/of me
The same pattern applies to the other vowel-final pronouns.
7. Summary
Nominative: no ending
Accusative: -en
Genitive: -ej
Plural: -i, added after the case ending
The general noun pattern is:
noun stem → case → plural