Today begins a new series on nouns. Each case will be posted one at a time for
the next few weeks. I'm trying something different, so for the next while,
updates will be on Mondays with grammatical building blocks. I'm beginning
with nouns and verbs, then will move into adjectives, adverbs and pronouns.
That's the plan, anyway.

* * *

Latvian is a case-based system, similar to Latin and other languages, but not
very much like English. What this means is that every noun can be **declined**
into one of **seven cases**. Each case represents a different sentence part,
the subject, direct object, indirect object and so on. The case system changes
the endings of the nouns, which makes it possible to infer more information
without requiring additional words.

* * *

**Nominative** is the first case and correlates to the English _subject_. The
_singular nominative_ is also the **dictionary form** , or the form used to
list nouns in dictionaries.

Let's look at an example of how this works.

_Pele grib sieru._ -- The mouse wants the cheese.

_Pele_ is **nominative**. _Sieru_ is **accusative**. The mouse does the
action, so it is the subject of the sentence. The cheese is affected by the
action, so it is the direct object.

In case-based languages like Latvian, you can play with the order of the
words, " _sieru pele grib_", for instance, and still have the same meaning.
(This is not something you can do in English!) Latvian poetry takes full
advantage of this, believe me, even if prose and conversation tends not to mix
things up too heavily.

* * *

## Asking the Question

Latvian associates a **question word** with six of the seven cases. (Vocative
does not have an associated question word specifically for it alone.) For
_nominative_ , Latvians ask **Kas?** (Read more about [interrogating
nouns](../2010/05/interrogating-nouns/) here.)

**Kas** means **who** or **what**. It can refer to a _person_ (who) or a
_thing_ (what). The word is the same regardless and can be answered in either
singular or plural.

_Kas grib sieru?_ _Pele._ -- Who wants the cheese? The mouse.

**Kas** asks for an answer in the **nominative**. You can't ask: _Kas pele
grib?_ or _Kas grib pele?_ It would be like asking in English "Who the mouse
wants?" You wind up with two identical subjects, which just doesn't work. And
no, you can't change it to "What does the mouse want?" because the question is
still pursuing the direct object. Kas is pursuing the subject of the sentence,
the doer of the action.

Most sentences will have a subject in the nominative case, but not all. Just
as in English, **sometimes the subject is inferred or dropped**. In that case,
context will tell you what the subject is.

## Forming the Plural

Pluralizing nominative nouns is very easy, but you can read more about it in
[On Plurals](http://learninglatvian.rozentali.com/2010/06/on-plurals/).

For nouns in the **1st** , **2nd** and **3rd declension** , the **ending
_changes_ to - _i_**.

For nouns in the **4th** and **5th** **declension** , **_add_ an - _s_ to the
ending**. Just like in English!

For nouns in the **6th declension** , **_change_ the ending from _-s_ to -
_is_**.

Remember that the **2nd declension _plural_** will always _involve
palatalization_ when possible. For example, _brālis_ becomes _brāļi_ because l
can change to ļ, while _tālskatis_ becomes _tālskati_ , as t doesn't seem to
change in the 2nd declension nouns. (It is possible for t to change to š, as
in the 5th declension noun _bite_ which becomes _bišu_ in the genitive
plural.)

## How to Decline in the Nominative

This is the easiest one, as it is the dictionary form. The endings are as
follows:

    
    
    vsk.   1. dekl. | 2. dekl. | 2. dekl. exc. | 3. dekl.
    Kas?     -s, -š |    -is   |    -s         |   -us 
    
    vsk.   4. dekl. | 5. dekl. | 6. dekl.
    Kas?       -a   |    -e    |    -s 
    
    dsk.   1. dekl. | 2. dekl. | 2. dekl. exc. | 3. dekl.
    Kas?       -i   |    -i    |     -i        |   -i 
    
    dsk.   4. dekl. | 5. dekl. | 6. dekl
    Kas?      -as   |    -es   |    -is 
    
    Red indicates potential palatalization changes.
    

[slider title="Vocabulary in this post:"]  
**gribēt , gribu, gribēju**: _mixed_ : to want  
**siers** : cheese  
[/slider]