Cases

High Valyrian 1

Course 1 · Chapter 4 · Number and Cases

Dothraki 1 (Chapter 4) had five cases. High Valyrian has eight, and in each of four numbers. That sounds like a great deal to memorise, but the system is regular once you see the pattern, and a few cases are rare in practice. This chapter gives the job of each case, with sentences from the grammar wiki, and a complete table for the noun vala "man" that you can use as a model.

The idea in a box

A noun changes its ending to show its job in the sentence. The eight cases are: nominative (subject), accusative (object), genitive (of), dative (to or for), locative (at), instrumental (by means of), comitative (with) and vocative (calling out).

What the Eight Cases Do

Case	Main job	Example from the wiki
Nominative	the subject; the dictionary form	Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor. "A dragon is not a slave."
Accusative	the direct object	Āeksia ossēnātās, menti ossēnātās! "Slay the masters, slay the soldiers!"
Genitive	possession and "of"; also material; the object of every postposition	Āeksio ondos "Hand of gold"
Dative	the indirect object ("to", "for")	Voktys Eglie aōt gaomilaksir teptas. "The High Priest gave you a mission."
Locative	place, and also time	Kesȳ tubī jemot dāervī tepan. "On this day I give you freedom."
Instrumental	means ("by means of"), adverbs, "than" with comparatives	Quptenkos Ēngoso ȳdrassia? "Do you speak the Common tongue?"
Comitative	accompaniment ("with")	... zaldrīzesse Daeneromy ēdrusi. "... the dragons are sleeping with Daenerys."
Vocative	calling someone	Dovaogēdys! Naejot memēbātās! "Unsullied! Forward march!"

You cannot parse these sentences fully yet; for now look only at the highlighted case word in each. For instance, in Āeksio ondos "Hand of gold" the genitive āeksio means "of gold", and in Daeneromy "with Daenerys" the ending -omy is the comitative.

More about some cases

Genitive. It usually comes before the thing possessed, and it is the case that every postposition takes. Personal pronouns use a possessive adjective instead of the genitive.
Dative. It is less common than you might expect: a verb prefix (i-) often turns a would-be dative into an accusative, and the postposition syt usually covers "for the benefit of".
Locative. It also expresses time, as in "on this day" above, and one of the prepositions (hae, "as") requires it.
Instrumental. It also makes adverbs, and it is used for "than" after a comparative adjective.
Vocative. With an infinitive it forms a third-person command: Dohaeriros māzigon! "May a slave come!", the sentence from Chapter 1.

A Model: the Whole of vala

Here is the full paradigm for vala "man", a first-declension lunar noun. Learn it as a model, and treat the other first-declension nouns as variations on it.

Case	Singular	Plural	Paucal	Collective
Nominative	vala	vali	valun	valar
Accusative	vale	valī	valuni	valari
Genitive	valo	valoti	valuno	valaro
Dative	valot	valoti	valunta	valarta
Locative	valā	valoti	valunna	valarra
Instrumental	valosa	valossi	valussa	valarza
Comitative	valoma	valommi	valumma	valarma
Vocative	valus	valis	valussa	valarza

Patterns to notice

Singular endings on the stem val-: accusative -e, genitive -o, dative -ot, locative -ā, instrumental -osa, comitative -oma, vocative -us.
Merged forms. In the plural, the genitive, dative and locative are all valoti, and context decides which is meant. In the paucal and collective, the instrumental and vocative are identical (valussa, valarza).
The number marker survives. Paucal forms keep a -un- or -u- before the case ending (valuni, valunta), and collectives keep -ar- (valari, valarta), so you can see the number inside the case form.
Other nouns follow other models. The aquatic noun embar "water" has the same system with a different stem (embri, embro, embrot...), and the second-declension loktys "sailor" has its own set (lokti, lokto, loktot...).

Watch out: sources differ on some forms

The wiki prints some forms in grey as guesses, and it is not marked here which cells those are. Another source also gives a different dative plural for vala (valunta, where this table has valoti). Use the table as the pattern and check the dictionary before relying on a rare cell.

Hands-On Exercises

Exercise 1

Name the case that does each job: (a) the subject; (b) the object; (c) "of"; (d) "by means of"; (e) "with"; (f) calling someone's name; (g) "on this day".

📄 View solution

Exercise 2

Using the table, give these forms of vala: the accusative singular, the genitive singular, the dative singular, the comitative plural and the nominative collective.

📄 View solution

Exercise 3

Find the three plural forms that are identical, and the two cases that are identical in the paucal and the collective. Why does this not make the language impossible to understand?

📄 View solution

Chapter 4 Quick Reference

Eight cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental, comitative, vocative
vala singular: vala, vale, valo, valot, valā, valosa, valoma, valus
Plural: vali, valī, valoti, valoti, valoti, valossi, valommi, valis
Mergers: plural genitive = dative = locative; paucal and collective instrumental = vocative
Genitive before the thing possessed; the vocative with an infinitive makes a command

Coming next

High Valyrian 1, Chapter 5 covers the pronouns, the possessive adjectives and the demonstratives.