Editing Dative case (section)

==Slavic languages==
In [[Russian language|Russian]], the dative case is used for indicating the indirect object of an action (that to which something is given, thrown, read, etc.). In the instance where a person is the goal of motion, dative is used instead of [[accusative case|accusative]] to indicate motion toward. This is usually achieved with the preposition {{lang|ru|κ|italic=no}} + destination in dative case; {{lang|ru|К врачу|italic=no}}, meaning "to the doctor."

Dative is also the necessary case taken by certain [[prepositions]] when expressing certain ideas.  For instance, when the preposition ''по'' is used to mean "along", its object is always in dative case, as in {{lang|ru|По бокам|italic=no}}, meaning "along the sides."

Other Slavic languages apply the dative case (and the other cases) more or less the same way as does Russian; some languages may use the dative in other ways.  The following examples are from [[Polish language|Polish]]:

*after certain verbs (dziękować '''komuś''' "to thank someone", pomóc '''komuś''' "to help someone", wierzyć '''komuś''' "to believe someone")
*in certain expressions (Czy podoba '''ci''' się piosenka? "Do you like the song?", Jest '''mi''' zimno "I'm cold", Jest '''nam''' smutno "We're feeling sad", Będzie '''wam''' trudniej... "It will be more difficult for you guys"), Śniło '''jej''' się, że... "She dreamt that"
*''dativus commodi'' to indicate action for somebody (Zbuduję t'''emu''' człowiek'''owi''' dom "I will build a house for this person")
*when something is taken away or something occurs to someone (Zdechł '''im''' pies "Their dog died"; Zabrali '''mu''' komputer "They took away his computer"; Zepsuł '''nam''' się samochód "Our car broke down"; Coś '''mi''' się przypomniało "I just remembered something")

Some other kinds of dative use as found in the [[Serbo-Croatian language]] are: ''Dativus finalis'' ('''Titaniku''' u pomoć "to Titanic's rescue"), ''Dativus commodi/incommodi'' (Operi '''svojoj majci''' suđe "Wash the dishes for your mother"), ''Dativus possessivus'' ('''Ovcama''' je dlaka gusta "Sheep's hair is thick"), ''Dativus ethicus'' (Šta/što '''mi''' radi Boni? "What is Boni doing? (I am especially interested in what it is)") and Dativus auctoris (Izgleda '''mi''' okej "It seems okay to me").{{Clarification needed|reason=Use of Latin grammatical concepts without explanation|date=December 2022}}

Unusual in other Indo-European branches but common among [[Slavic languages]], endings of nouns and adjectives are different based on grammatical function.  Other factors are gender and number.  In some cases, the ending may not be obvious, even when those three factors (function, gender, number) are considered.  For example, in Polish, ''''syn'''' ("son") and ''''ojciec'''' ("father") are both masculine singular nouns, yet appear as ''syn → syn'''owi''''' and ''ojciec → ojc'''u''''' in the dative.