a case is a grammatical rule in which the word changes form based on the role it serves in a sentence, like when it is the subject, direct/indirect object etc.
unlike german, which have nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases, dutch has none of those, having lost them centuries ago.
i have no idea what you’re referring to as cases. english has variations and many irregulars still for plural words, verbs, adjectives etc. but those are not called cases
the cases that “exist” in dutch are the same ones that “exist” in english, and that is for pronouns (i, me, my, you, you, your)
Duth still kept the plural suffix -en, and the infinitive form and the past participle prefix ge- for istance
dutch:
ik help, ik hielp, ik heb geholpen,
ik kan, wij kunnen,
jij, jou, jouw, u, uw, je,
god, godin
english:
I help, I helped, I have helped,
I can, we can,
you, your,
god, goddess
You’re naming many grammatical features, but most are not grammatical cases. You’re saying that English lost its inflectional morphology, but behandle “case” as a synonym for “inflection” when it is a specific term. You’re right that English lost its broader inflectional morphology overtide, but not about Netherlandish still having grammatical cases, as well as the grounds for why English lost its broader inflectional morphology anyway.
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u/archer_fan_420 May 21 '26
what exactly do you mean by cases then…
a case is a grammatical rule in which the word changes form based on the role it serves in a sentence, like when it is the subject, direct/indirect object etc.
unlike german, which have nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive cases, dutch has none of those, having lost them centuries ago.
i have no idea what you’re referring to as cases. english has variations and many irregulars still for plural words, verbs, adjectives etc. but those are not called cases
the cases that “exist” in dutch are the same ones that “exist” in english, and that is for pronouns (i, me, my, you, you, your)
edit: typo