What is the Dative case in the Russian language?

Hello, my dear Russian learner! 

Cases are one of the most complicated rules in the Russian language, so let’s figure them out together! 

We’ve already published a short explanation about what cases are and how many there are in the Russian language. You can read it here.

Let's briefly remind you that a case is a grammatical category that determines the role of several parts of speech in a sentence, expresses the connection between them and conveys the meaning of what is being said. It's what word order often does in other languages.

The case system applies to nouns, pronouns, as well as the adjectives, numerals and participles that depend on them. They are declined by case, which means the ending of the word changes.

In total, there are six cases in the Russian language. Read about the Nominative case here and about the Genitive case here. Now, let's talk about the Dative case.

What does the Dative case mean?

The Dative case indicates the indirect object of an action, i.e. the person for whom an action is performed (the recipient or beneficiary). You can check the case using the verb ‘давать’ (‘to give’)

“Давать коту [еду]” – “To give the cat [food]”. Here, ‘коту’ (‘to the cat’) has a form of the Dative case.

There’s also a whole list of verbs directed towards someone which require the Dative case: ‘писать’ (‘to write’), ‘звонить’ (‘to call’), ‘отвечать’ (‘to answer’), ‘помогать’ (‘to help’), ‘нравится’ ‘кому-то’ (‘to be liked by someone’).

With the Dative case, nouns and pronouns answer the questions “кому?” ("to whom?") and “чему?” ("to what?"). Adjectives and participles answer the questions “какому? какой? какому? каким?” ("to which?”) and numerals – ”скольким?” ( "to how many?").

The Dative case is often used with the prepositions: ‘к’ (‘to/towards’), ‘по’ (‘along/on’), as well as in some cases ‘вопреки’ (‘despite’), ‘наперекор’ (‘in defiance of’), ‘согласно’ (‘according to’).

Below are examples of how nouns of the three declension types look in the Dative case: 

If you want to learn more about the cases and Russian grammar, make sure you sign up to our free Russian language course!