Instructive case

Finnish

In the Finnish language, the instructive case has the basic meaning of "by means of". It is a comparatively rarely used case, though it is found in some commonly used expressions, such as omin silmin → "with one's own eyes".

In modern Finnish, many of its instrumental uses are being superseded by the adessive case, as in "minä matkustin junalla" → "I travelled by train."

It is also used with Finnish verbal second infinitives to mean "by ...ing", e.g. "lentäen" → "by flying", "by air" ("lentää" = "to fly").

Estonian

In Estonian, the instructive case (Estonian: viisiütlev) also exists, but only in some words. (f.e: "jalgsi" - "on foot", from "jalg" - foot)

Turkish

In Turkish, the suffix -le is used for this purpose. Ex: Trenle geldim "I came via train".

Further reading

• Karlsson, Fred (2018). Finnish - A Comprehensive Grammar. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-82104-0.
• Anhava, Jaakko (2015). "Criteria For Case Forms in Finnish and Hungarian Grammars". journal.fi. Helsinki: Finnish Scholarly Journals Online.