obliqueplural

Oblique plural refers to the plural form of a noun or pronoun that is used in oblique, or non-nominative, grammatical cases in languages with a case system. The oblique plural contrasts with the nominative plural, which marks the subject of a clause. In languages that distinguish multiple cases, nouns, adjectives, and sometimes pronouns take different endings or forms for oblique cases such as the accusative, dative, genitive, or instrumental. The exact endings and their distribution vary by language and by gender or declension class.

In pronoun systems, oblique plurals are often the forms used in object positions or after prepositions. For example, in English the nominative plural is we or they, while the oblique (object) forms are us and them. Many languages with richer inflectional systems maintain distinct oblique plural forms across several cases, and these forms may be required after prepositions or in syntactic positions governed by those cases. Some languages preserve the distinction consistently across the full set of cases, while others converge oblique plurals with other plural forms in certain contexts.

Terminology for this concept varies. Some grammars simply describe “the plural forms in oblique cases” or “non-nominative plural,” while others use the label oblique plural to highlight the separation from the nominative plural. The phenomenon is part of the broader study of inflection, case alignment, and agreement in languages with explicit case marking.

See also: oblique case, nominative case, declension, pronoun system.