The illative case is an essential part of North Sami grammar that tells you where something is going.

You’ll use this case every time you want to talk about moving toward a place or giving an object to someone.

Learning how to form the illative case correctly makes a huge difference in your conversational skills.

Keep reading and I’ll show you exactly how to use this grammatical case with clear examples.

What is the illative case?

Grammatical cases change the ending of a noun to show its specific role in a sentence.

The illative case is the “to” or “into” case.

It marks the final destination of a physical movement.

It also marks the person who receives something from you.

If you want to say you’re traveling to a city, you must put the city’s name in the illative case.

When to use the illative case

There are two main situations where you’ll use the illative case in North Sami.

The first is for movement towards a location.

Whenever you use a verb that involves motion, the destination must take an illative ending.

Here are some examples of expressing movement toward a place.

The second main use is to show the recipient of an action.

This is very similar to the indirect object in English grammar.

If you give, say, or show something to someone, that person’s name or title takes the illative case.

Here’s how you use the illative case for a recipient.

How to form the illative case

North Sami words are divided into different stem types based on their syllables.

The ending you add depends entirely on the type of word you’re using.

The illative singular always uses the strong consonant grade of the word.

For most common nouns, you’ll add -ii, -i, or -ái to the end of the word.

Here’s a simple table showing how to form the illative singular.

Illative plural endings

When you’re talking about multiple destinations or multiple recipients, the ending changes completely.

The illative plural uses the weak consonant grade instead of the strong grade.

The most common plural endings for this case are -ide and -iidda.

You’ll add these endings directly to the weak stem of the noun.

Here are the same words from above, but in the illative plural form.

Learning these basic endings will help you express direction easily in North Sami.