In grammar, the instructive case is a grammatical case used in Finnish, Estonian, and the Turkic languages.

Uralic languages[edit]

In Finnish, the instructive case is used to indicate means, manner, instrument, location, or time. It is almost exclusively used in fixed expressions, such as in omin silmin 'with one's own eyes'.^[1] However, the instructive is productive for infinitive verbal constructions to indicate manner, as in nauraen 'laughing': He astuivat nauraen sisään 'They stepped in through the door laughing'.^[2]

In modern Finnish, many of its instrumental uses are being superseded by the adessive case, as in minä matkustin junalla 'I travelled by train'.^{[citation needed]}

The instructive case is only marginally present in Estonian in lexicalized expressions. Language reformers of the 20th century did try to revive it, but with little success.^[3]

Turkish[edit]

In Turkish, the suffix -le is used for this purpose; for example, Trenle geldim 'I came via train'.^{[citation needed]}

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

• Anhava, Jaakko (2015). "Criteria For Case Forms in Finnish and Hungarian Grammars". Studia Orientalia Electronica. 108. Helsinki.
• Karlsson, Fred (2018). Finnish - A Comprehensive Grammar. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-82104-0.
• Metslang, Helle (2017). "10. Can a language be forced? The case of Estonian". In Van Olmen, Daniel; Cuyckens, Hubert; Ghesquière, Lobke (eds.). Aspects of Grammaticalization: (Inter)Subjectification and Directionality. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs. Vol. 305. De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 281–310. doi:10.1515/9783110492347-011. ISBN 9783110489699. ISSN 1861-4302.