Lesson 10 - Nouns: Case - Dative.

[Walas00]

The Dative case has many usages.
Sometimes describen as "to" or "for" (to be cold, to be warm, etc./ for you, for them, etc.). Requires "lu" (to be) in a sentence.

Dative -ru (rarely -r)

1. The beneficator, or recipent in an action - "for you"
This is simmilar to the ACC-ERG (Subject, Object, Action, remember?) case.
We mark who is the action done "for".

irayo ngaru lu
irayo nga-ru lu
"Thank" "you"-Dative "to.be"
Literaly means "There is thank for you".

yom oeru lu
yom oe-ru lu
"food" "me"-Dative "to.be"
There is food for me

Here is a phrase you might have met.
Ngaru lu fpom srak?
Nga-ru lu fpom srak?
"You"-Dative "to.be" "well being" QUESTION? (Question marker will be explained in further lessons)

"How are you?" - literaly "Is there well being for you?", "Do you have well being?"

2. Having something for someone (just an example)

lu oeru aylì’u frapor
lu oe-ru ay-lì’u fra-po-r
"to.be" "Me"-Dative Plural-"word" "every"-"he/she"-Dative

"I have something to tell everyone"
Literaly "I have words to give you all"

We use two dative suffixes here - to indicate that we have words (remember about "to.be"), and to indicate who do we want to give the words to.

There are many usages of this... Couldn't find a place where the dative would be clearly explained. Just remember that if there is a "to" or "for" in your sentence you should use the dative.
Also if you have trouble translating your sentence try to convert it to an extended version to a form where you can use the cases. For example "Can you forgive me?" could be converted into "Is there forgiveness for me [from you]?". You should try to do that with your sentences, helps a lot.

New words:
li'u - word
fra - "every" (as in "every one")
fpom - "well being" (used to ask "are you feeling good?" "How are you?")

I recommend trying to study this case in the wikibooks page [linkz]. The more sources the better! Maybe you'll understand it better there.

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