So what is a case system?

Before you start getting anxious thinking about Tuiseal Ginideach and when (and when not) to use it, it’s important to know what a case system is in a language. If you’ve studied German in school you’ll have a fair idea. English has almost completely lost its case system, so knowing that isn’t as helpful.

But, consider these sentences:

I gave the book to Mary.

Mary gave the book to me.

If you were teaching English, how would you explain the difference between “I” and “me”?

Best of luck to you with that, I wouldn’t have a clue. I know it’s something to do with the case system, but I’ve never studied English grammar (Google tells me “I” is the Subjective Case and “me” is the Objective Case. In the first sentence you were the subject, and in the second Mary was the subject, you were the object, so I guess that makes sense)

Look about this sentence for a minute:

The man caught the fish.

The fish caught the man.

In English, it’s very obvious. Word order tells us who did what. But not every language is like that. In some languages, both of the above sentences could mean the same thing, it would be impossible to know what the writer meant, unless you added something to either or both nouns (and some languages add bits to the nouns AND verbs so be grateful Irish isn’t the worst of them!).

Something like: Manu caught the Fishee.

And then the reader would be like “Oh, now I get it”. The reader, being a native speaker wouldn’t have a notion what case it’s in, but would understand the sentence because of it.

Essentially, case systems help us understand who’s doing what in a sentence, and everyone’s relationship to everyone else.

Case systems are also useful to emphasise something. Like this sentence in Irish:

Tá an cat ar an mbosca.

In this instance, “ar an” told you something was “on the” box, but in case you missed that, the urú gave you a second chance of understanding that it’s not just a box, it’s something on a box that’s being spoken about. In reality, you probably don’t need a second chance to understand, but it’s just another reason case systems were used historically.

What has this all got to do with Irish?

Well, in Irish we have five cases.

Don’t freak out. Two are identical. So identical we’re going to completely ignore the second. And the 5th is where you say “Hey, Mike!” which isn’t really that important and it takes about 3 minutes to learn it (You’ll need it if you plan on taking the SCG exam).

So the three we’re going to use for Irish are:

• Nominative Case // An Tuiseal Ainmneach
• Dative Case // An Tuiseal Tabharthach
• Genitive Case // An Tuiseal Ginideach

The other two are:

• Accusative Case // An Tuiseach Cuspóireach – it’s identical to the Tuiseal Ainmneach)
• Vocative Case // An Tuiseal Gairmeach – This is when you say “A Sheáin” to call your buddy Seán, or when you start a letter with “A chara”.

In the Basque language they have 8 cases, and the nouns change depending on which case they’re in, but also if they’re in a definite or in definite state (a man versus the man). This handy chart will help you remember the Basque case system (borrowed from this website).

The Finnish language has 15 cases! They even have one all about suspicion, and the noun changes (a lot) depending on how suspicious you are.

Look at the ways the word for house changes here:

The actual word for house isn’t any of the above! It’s talo.

So…. back to Irish. You might forgive us our five, with one being irrelevant (in a way) and one being extremely easy.

The worst that can happen in Irish is – does it take a séimhiú, or an urú, and you have to learn the plural and the genitive (and often they’re the same, which might make things more difficult now that I think about it…..)

So fear can become fir and then ar an bhfear or ón bhfear, but it’s still not as bad as Finnish…..