High Valyrian Noun Cases: Best Guide to All 8 Cases

Every noun in High Valyrian changes its ending depending on its job in the sentence — and there are eight different jobs to mark. Where English relies on word order (“the king saw the knight” versus “the knight saw the king”), High Valyrian relies on case endings, which is why its word order can be flexible without losing meaning. This guide to high valyrian noun cases starts with that core idea: endings carry the grammar.

Created by linguist David J. Peterson for HBO’s Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, High Valyrian’s eight-case system — nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental, comitative, vocative — is documented on the public High Valyrian wiki. Some cases merge in c For complete declension tables of high valyrian noun cases, see https://wiki.dothraki.org.ertain declensions, but the functions below hold across the whole language.

Why Cases Matter

In the documented sentence Kepa gerpī ipradas (“the father eats the fruits”), it is the endings — nominative subject, accusative object — that tell you who eats whom, not the order of the words. High Valyrian is a heavily inflected language, so grammatical roles are carried by suffixes rather than by fixed word order. This is the single most important idea in the whole High Valyrian grammar guide: learn the case system and everything else — word order, negation, commands — falls into place. Once you grasp high valyrian noun cases, the rest of the grammar follows naturally.

There is no definite or indefinite article in High Valyrian. Dārys can mean “king,” “a king,” or “the king” depending on context, so case endings do the work that articles and prepositions do in English.

High Valyrian Noun Cases at a Glance

Nominative: The Subject

The nominative marks the subject of an active or passive verb and the complement of a copula verb like issa (“he is”). When learning high valyrian noun cases, the nominative is always the starting point. In zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor (“a dragon is not a slave”), zaldrīzes is nominative — the dragon is the subject. In āeksio yne ilīritas (“the lord has smiled upon me”), āeksio is the nominative subject. The nominative singular is the citation form you find in a High Valyrian dictionary, so it is the form every learner meets first.

Accusative: The Direct Object

The accusative marks what receives the verb’s action. The solar noun dārys (“king”) shows the change clearly: dārys as subject, dāri as object. In the famous command āeksia ossēnātās, menti ossēnātās! (“slay the masters, slay the soldiers!”), both āeksia and menti are accusative The accusative is key in high valyrian noun cases for marking the direct object.because they are the things being slain. For lunar nouns the pattern is similar: zokla (“wolf,” nominative singular) becomes zokle in the accusative singular.

Genitive: Possession and “Of”

The genitive expresses possession and association — roughly English “of” or the apostrophe-s. It also combines with postpositions to build meanings English expresses with prepositions: the superessive (“on top of”) is formed with the postposition bē following the genitive, as in lento bē In high valyrian noun cases, the genitive primarily marks possession. (“on top of a house”). The genitive, dative, and locative are not always distinguished in the plural, so plural forms may look identical in some declensions.

Dative: The Indirect Object

The dative marks the recipient or beneficiary — the indirect object, “to” or “for” someone. In our sentence structure examples, taobot rūklon tepan (“I give the boy a flower”) places the indirect object rūklon (“to the boy”) in the dative before the direct object. One subtlety documented on the wiki: when a verb carries the oblique applicative prefix i-, the applied object appears in the accusative instead of the expected dative — as in belmurtī ivestrās (“tell the slavers”), where the verb ivestrās licenses the accusative.

Locative: Location

The locative marks where something is — “in” or “at.” It also pairs with the preposition hen to form the ablative (“from”): hen lentot means “from a house,” with lentot in the locative. Locative phrases usually sit before the verb, as in the documented example ziry navār ellas (“she is hugging him on the lake”).

Instrumental: “With” or “By Means Of”

The instrumental marks the tool or means used to perform an action — “with a sword,” “by force.” It plays a special role in passive commands: when an inanimate noun would be the agent of a third-person command, High Valyrian uses the instrumental passive rather than a nominative agent, because inanimate nouns are considered incompatible with agency. So “let the stone grind up the seeds” uses the instrumental passive construction, not a nominative subject.

Comitative: “Together With”

The comitative marks accompaniment — “together with.” It is not distinguished from the instrumental in all declensions, which is why learners sometimes see one form doing both jobs. When the two merge, context decides whether “with” means “using” or “alongside.”

Vocative: Addressing Someone

The vocative is the case of direct address — “O king!” But it has a second, more distinctive job: the subject of a third-person command in the active voice goes in the vocative. Compare the documented pair melva nevekson (“let the pears be carried,” nominative patient in the passive) with melva riñus nevegon (“let the child carry the pears,” vocative agent in the active). If you are translating commands or oaths, getting the vocative right is essential.

Case Endings Follow the Noun’s Class

Which exact endings a noun takes depends on its class — lunar, solar, terrestrial, or aquatic. The class names themselves are High Valyrian words: hūrenkon qogror (lunar), vēzenkon qogror (solar), tegōñor qogror (terrestrial), embōñor qogror (aquatic). Most humans are lunar or solar, but class has no relationship to biological sex — vala (“man”) is lunar.

A well-attested sample of the lunar pattern across numbers (all these forms are documented on the wiki):

The full eight-case paradigm for each class is documented on the wiki’s noun declension pages; forms beyond the widely attested ones above should be treated as reconstructed by fans rather than directly attested. When you practice with the English to Valyrian translator, remember that automated tools generally return dictionary forms — it is your job to decline them into the right case.

Cases in Real Sentences

Watch the cases work together in Daenerys’s Astapor line: zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor — nominative subject (zaldrīzes, “a dragon”), accusative complement (buzdari, “a slave”), verb (iksos, “is”), negation (daor, “not”). And in Kepa gerpī ipradas the pieces are nominative subject (kepa, “the father”), accusative object (gerpī, “the fruits”), and the third-person verb ipradas (“eats”). Notice how the accusative endings make the roles unmistakable even though the word order could vary — that flexibility is the whole payoff of the case system. More worked examples appear in our guide to High Valyrian phrases from the shows.

Related Valyrian Tools

• Valyrian to English translator — identify the case of words you encounter
• English to Valyrian translator — draft sentences, then decline nouns by hand
• High Valyrian dictionary — check each noun’s class before declining
• High Valyrian phrases — see cases in attested dialogue

Frequently Asked Questions

How many noun cases does High Valyrian have?

Eight: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, instrumental, comitative, and vocative. The instrumental and comitative are not distinguished in all declensions, and the genitive, dative, and locative are not always distinguished in the plural.

What is the difference between the instrumental and comitative cases?

The instrumental marks the means or tool (“with a sword,” “by force”), while the comitative marks accompaniment (“together with someone”). In some declensions the two share a single form, so context decides which meaning applies.

How do I know which case to use?

Ask what the noun is doing: subject → nominative, direct object → accusative, possessor → genitive, recipient → dative, location → locative, tool → instrumental, companion → comitative, person addressed → vocative. The dictionary form is always the nominative singular.

Why does dārys become dāri?

Dārys (“king”) is a solar noun, and solar nouns change their final -ys to -i in the accusative singular. Every noun class has its own declension pattern, which is why learning a noun’s class matters as much as learning the word itself.

What case is used for commands?

For third-person commands in the active voice, the subject goes in the vocative case — for example, melva riñus nevegon (“let the child carry the pears”), where riñus is vocative. In passive third-person commands, the subject stays in the nominative.

Do I really need all eight cases to start reading High Valyrian?

Not at once. Learn nominative and accusative first — they cover most simple sentences. Add genitive and dative next, then locative, instrumental, comitative, and vocative as you tackle real texts. The Valyrian to English translator can help you spot which case a word is in while you practice.

Master high valyrian noun cases and you hold the key to High Valyrian’s flexibility: endings carry the grammar, so word order is free to serve emphasis and style. Drill nominative against accusative with real show sentences first, then add one case at a time.