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[[de:Dativ]] [[fr:Datif]] [[ro:Cazul dativ]] [[zh:&#19982;&#26684;]]
'''Dative''' is a [[declension|grammatical case]] for a noun. Dative marks, generally, the '''indirect object''' of a verb. Dative cases are found in [[Latin_language|Latin]], [[Old English language|Old English]], and [[German language|German]] among other languages. Compare [[nominative case]], [[accusative case]], [[ergative case]], [[genitive case]], [[vocative case]], [[ablative case]].

While dative case is no longer a part of the English grammar, it survives in a few set expressions. One good example is the word '''methinks''', with the meaning "it seems to me". It survives in this fixed form from the days of Old English (having undergone, however, phonetical changes with the rest of the language), in which it was constructed as '''me''' (the dative case of the personal pronoun) + '''thinks''' ("to seem", a verb closely related to the verb "to think", but distinct from it in Old English; later it merged with "to think" and lost this meaning).

The dative can occur in English without a preposition ('to' or 'for') as in "He gave me that" or "He built me a snowman". In both examples the "me" is dative.

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====References====
* Adapted from the [[Wikipedia]] article, "Dative_case" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dative_case http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dative_case], used under the [[GNU Free Documentation License]]