nominatiivivormid

Nominatiivivormid, or nominative forms, refer to the base forms of words that are used in the nominative case in languages with grammatical case systems. The nominative is typically the form found in dictionaries and is used for the subject of a finite verb. In copular sentences, the predicate noun or adjective often appears in the nominative as well. In many languages, the nominative form is the form you would look up as the headword.

Usage and variation: In languages that mark cases, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives may have distinct nominative forms for singular and plural, and these forms can vary by gender or by declension class. The exact endings or even the existence of a separate nominative form depend on the language. For example, in German the nominative singular is der Mann and the nominative plural die Männer, used for subjects. In English, the noun form remains largely unchanged for subject or object in simple sentences, while pronouns have explicit nominative forms (I, you, he, she, we, they) that differ from their objective forms. In Finnish or Estonian, the nominative often serves as the dictionary form, with plural nominatives formed by language-specific endings and adjective agreement when used attributively.

Headword and dictionaries: Nominative forms are typically the headwords listed in dictionaries, serving as the reference point from which other case forms are derived. They also guide syntactic roles, such as subject position and predicative complement.

See also: Other grammatical cases, declension, predicative nominative, language-specific noun morphology.