Instrumentál

Instrumentál refers to the instrumental case, a grammatical case used in several Slavic languages to indicate the instrument or means by which an action is performed. It also covers functions such as expressing agency in passive constructions, accompaniment, or the manner of an action, and it often interacts with prepositions to convey these relations. The exact usage and forms vary between languages, but the core idea is to mark how something is done.

In Czech and Slovak, instrumentál is one of the core cases. Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and sometimes numerals take instrumental forms when describing the tool or means of an action, or when indicating accompaniment with a preposition such as “with.” The case also appears in certain predicative or verbal constructions to convey manner or instrumentality.

Polish uses a related system known as the narzędnik. It serves similar functions for indicating instrument, means, or accompaniment and is used with various verbs and prepositions to express how actions are performed or with whom they are performed.

In Russian and Ukrainian, the instrumental case marks instrument or means and has specialized syntactic roles after certain verbs, in predicative constructions, and with prepositional phrases. For example, after the verb of becoming, one can see the instrumental to denote a new role or identity.

The forms of the instrumentál differ by language and gender, and the case interacts with nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. As a fundamental feature of Slavic morphology, the instrumental case enables speakers to express the tool or method behind an action, as well as related nuances such as accompaniment and manner.