An adessive case ( abbreviated ; from Latin '' adesse'' "to be present (at)": ''ad'' "at" + ''esse'' "to be") is a

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a Nominal group (functional grammar), n ...

generally denoting location at, upon, or adjacent to the

referent A referent ( ) is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken o ...

of the noun; the term is used most frequently for Uralic studies. For Uralic languages, such as Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, it is the fourth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of "on"—for example, Estonian ' (table) and ' (on the table), Hungarian ' and ' (at the table). It is also used as an

instrumental case In grammar, the instrumental case ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the ''instrument'' or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. The noun may be either a physical object or ...

in Finnish. For Finnish, the suffix is ''/'', e.g. ' (table) and ' (on the table). In addition, it can specify "being around the place", as in ' (at the school including the schoolyard), as contrasted with the inessive ' (in the school, inside the building). In Estonian, the ending ''-l'' is added to the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

, e.g. ' (table) - ' (on the table). Besides the meaning "on", this case is also used to indicate ownership. For example, "mehel on auto" means "the man owns a car". As the Uralic languages don't possess the verb "to have", the concept is expressed as a subject in the adessive case + ''on'' (for example, ', "I have", literally "at me is"). The other locative cases in Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian are: *

Inessive case In grammar, the inessive case ( abbreviated ; from "to be in or at") is a locative grammatical case. This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is in Finnish, in Estonian, () in Moksha, in Basque, in Lithu ...

("in") * Elative case ("out of") * Illative case ("into") * Allative case ("onto") *

Ablative case In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages. It is used to indicate motion away from something, make ...

("off") * Superessive case ("on top of, or on the surface of")

Finnish

The Finnish adessive case has the word ending or (according to the rules of

vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...

). It is usually added to nouns and associated adjectives. It is used in the following ways. * Expressing the static state of being on the surface of something. :Possible English meanings of ''on'', ''on top of'', or ''atop'' :: - ''The pen is on the table.'' *As an existential clause with the verb ''olla'' (to be) to express possession :This is the Finnish way to express the English verb ''to have'' :: = ''We have a dog. ('on our (possession, responsibility, etc.) is dog')'' * Expressing the instrumental use of something :Possible English meanings of ''with'', ''by'' or ''using'' ::'' - He went to Helsinki by train.'' ::'' - He bought it for a Euro.'' * In certain time expressions expressing the time at which events occur :Possible English meanings of ''during'', ''in'' or ''over'' ::'' - In the morning. '' ::' - ''During Spring.'' * Expressing the general proximity in space or time at which something occurs (where the more specific proximity case would be the inessive) :Possible English meaning of ''at'' :: - ''My son is at school.'' :::(cf. inessive case: - ''My son is inside the school.'') :: - ''He is at lunch.'' - literally ''"on the lunch hour"''. :::(This proximity difference corresponds to adverbial forms such as - ''"around here"'' and - ''"right here"'', though they are not strictly a use of the adessive case).

Non-Uralic

Other languages which employ an adessive case or case function include archaic varieties of Lithuanian (which likely developed by the influence of Uralic), some Northeast Caucasian languages such as Lezgian and Hunzib, and the Ossetic languages,* Kim, Ronald
"On the Historical Phonology of Ossetic."
''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 123, No. 1. (Jan.-Mar., 2003), p. 44. both ancient and modern.

Finnish

Non-Uralic

Further reading