instrumental case

grammar

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July 23, 2026

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The term "instrumental" can refer to a tool used for making music or a tool for construction. It can also mean helpful or essential, as in someone being instrumental in a project's success.1

In grammar, the instrumental case is a grammatical case that indicates the instrument or means by which an action is performed. For example, in Luiseño, kí-tal means "by means of the house". Some Indigenous North American languages also feature instrumental prefixes on verbs to denote the instrument used in an action.2

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Armenian language
Morphology and syntax
accusative, ablative, instrumental, and locative. However, many of these forms overlapped so that usually only three or four different forms existed; e.g., žam ‘time’ was both nominative and accusative, žamê was ablative, and žamu was genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative. A special form of locative was very…
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accusative, ablative, instrumental, and locative. However, many of these forms overlapped so that usually only three or four different forms existed; e.g., žam ‘time’ was both nominative and accusative, žamê was ablative, and žamu was genitive, dative, instrumental, and locative. A special form of locative was very…
Read More