dativekääne

Dativekääne, or the dative case, denotes the recipient or beneficiary of an action. In contemporary Estonian, there is no distinct dative case for common nouns; the sense of “to” or “for” is usually expressed by the allative form of the noun with the suffix -le (for example sõber → sõbrale “to a friend”). For pronouns, a dedicated set of dative forms exists: mulle, sulle, talle, meile, teile, neile, which are used with verbs and prepositions to mark the indirect object or recipient.

Examples illustrate its use. Ma annan raamatu sõbrale. “I give the book to a friend.” Ma kirjutan sulle kirja. “I am writing you a letter.” Mulle meeldib see raamat. “I like this book” (literally: “To me this book is pleasing”). Dative forms with pronouns are common in everyday speech, while nouns typically rely on the allative construction to express recipient or beneficiary.

Historically, Estonian had a more distinctive dative formation in older stages of the language, but in modern standard language the noun dative is largely expressed through the allative, with pronouns retaining explicit dative forms. Some grammars treat dativekääne as a functional or semantic category rather than a separate morphological case for all noun classes.

In summary, dativekääne in Estonian primarily appears in pronoun forms and certain periphrastic constructions, while for nouns the dative meaning is usually conveyed by the allative case.