Accordingly the cases found in Telugu are the Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Vocative, Instrumental and Locative.*
The Genitive case, if it differs from the nominative is often called the inflection : thus యింటి is the inflection of యిల్లు a house.
The Genitive often uses యొక్క "of." Thus అతని పేరు and అతని యొక్క పేరు equally signify "his name."
The Genitive plural changes the లు LU of the Nom. plu. into ల LA. Thus N. Plu. తమ్ములు ; G. తమ్ముల of the brothers.
The Dative, as already pointed out, adds కి to the inflection if it ends in or ; as N. వాడు he, G. వాని, his, D. వానికి to him. - N. స్త్రీ a woman, D. స్త్రీకి to a woman. But if the inflection ends in any other syllable it takes కు. Thus NG. బిడ్డ a child. D. బిడ్డకు to a child. As regards some words the inflection ending in takes at pleasure న Na before కు in the Dative Singular. Thus NG. గుర్రము a horse. D. గుర్రముకు or గుర్రమునకు to a horse.
The Dative plural adds KU to the plu. inflection. Thus G. Plu. , D. to the horses.
The accusative generally adds to words that end in or ; but to other words. Thus N. a cat. Accusative . N. a woman. Accusative, . But the plural N. cats, Accusative . N. , Accus.
Masculine nouns ending in UDU or DU make the accusative singular by changing the termination into NI. Thus N. a brother A. N. a son-in-law. A. N. a husband. A. N. a person. A. N. A. . But the Sanskrit masculines in drop at pleasure altogether; as N. a teacher. A. or .
- Sanskrit grammarians (from whom Telugu authors borrow their rules) call the nominative First case; the Accusative Second case : the Instrumental Third case ; the Genitive and Dative are includied in the Sixth case; and the Locative is called the Seventh case. The Ablative is called either Instrumental or Locative. Singular is called and plural .
