comitatiivse

Comitatiivne is an Estonian linguistic term referring to the comitative, a category that marks accompaniment—indicating that an action is performed with someone or something. In many languages the comitative answers questions such as “with whom?” or “with what?” and is used to express togetherness or accompaniment rather than instrument or means.

In Estonian, the comitative is typically realized with the postposition -ga attached to the noun in its genitive form. For example, ema (mother) becomes emaga, meaning “with mother”; sõber (friend) becomes sõbraga, meaning “with a friend.” Personal pronouns follow the same pattern: mina → minuga, sina → sinuga, tema → temaga. This construction is distinct from instrumental expressions, which denote means or tools.

The term comitatiivne is also used as an adjective describing things related to the comitative. Its genitive singular form is comitatiivse, as in comitatiivse tähendusega (“with a comitative meaning”). Plural forms exist as comitatiivsete, used in phrases describing multiple comitative relationships.

Across languages, comitative marking varies: some languages have a dedicated comitative case, others use postpositions or helper words to express accompaniment. In Estonian, the dominant mechanism is the suffix -ga after the genitive form of the noun, making the comitative a postpositional construction rather than a standalone case.

See also: case, postposition, instrumental, grammatical mood, morphology.