Gramatical characteristics of nouns
The gramatical characteristics of nouns are gender, number and case.
We distinguish three genders in nouns : masculine, feminine and neuter. Each noun belongs to one of these three genders. Masculine nouns are divided into animate and inanimate.
Further, there are two numbers : singular and plural. One thing is usuallly indicated by the singular and more things belonging to the same category are usually indicated by the plural. Nouns plural in form, but indicating only one thing are termed pluralia-tantum, e.g. nohavice (trousers).
There are six cases in Slovak language
The nominative answers the questions kto? čo ? who ? what ?
The genitive answers the questions koho ? čoho? of whom ? of what?
The dative answers the questions komu ? čomu? to whom ? to what ?
The accusative answers the questions koho ? čo ? whom? what?
The locative answers the questions o kom ? o čom ? about whom ? about what?
The instrumental answers the questions s kým ? s čím? with whom ? with what?
These cases permit to express differet relations between objects, between actions and objects and between qualities and objects.