single form, unmarked by a suffix, for the nominative case (used for the subject of an intransitive verb) and the accusative case (used for the object of a transitive verb), while the ergative case (used for the subject of a transitive verb) is marked by a suffix. In pronouns, on the other hand, the nominative and the ergative coincide in the bare stem form, while the accusative is marked by a suffix. Exceptionally, the third person dual and plural pronouns, as well as vowel-final proper and kin nouns, receive separate marking for each of these three cases. The ergative, if used with inanimate nouns, may also mark an instrument. The locative case describes path or destination of movement, location, duration in time, instrument (and means), company ('together with'), and cause or reason. The dative case marks purpose, cause and reason, possession (rarely), goal and direction of movement, recipient, temporal duration or endpoint, a core argument in some syntactic constructions, and a complement of intransitives verbs or nouns like 'fond (of)', 'good (to)', 'know', 'forget'. The genitive is used only with animate nouns and marks, besides the typical possessor and related functions, also a beneficiary, recipient, or complement of some verbs and nouns. The ablative most commonly marks reason or a temporal or spatial starting point. The comitative seems to have a wide range of meanings, some of them idiomatic, but the most typical seem to correspond to English 'with'. Genitive, ablative and comitative suffixes may be followed by other case suffixes. Some adverbs can take case suffixes: locative (optionally for adverbs of place), dative (with the sense 'to', optionally for adverbs of place, obligatory for adverbs of time), or ablative (obligatory for both if the meaning is 'from, since'). Adverbs of manner cannot take case suffixes – this distinguishes them from nouns that express similar meanings (as these nouns must agree in case with the nouns they modify). Verbal morphology Verbs belong to one of three conjugation classes, which are characterised by the presence of a 'conjugational marker' (-l-, -y- or none) which appears in certain verb forms. Verbs take suffixes for change of valency or for tense/mood (future tense, between two and three non-future tenses, imperatives, apprehensional). There are also purposive forms, which signal intention when used as the predicate of a non-subordinate clause, or mark verbs in subordinate clauses for purpose, result or successive actions. Syntax Word order