Definition & Meaning of "illative case"

What is the "illative case"?

The illative case is a grammatical case used to indicate movement into or toward something. It often expresses the idea of "into" or "toward" in relation to a location or object. This case is found in languages such as Finnish and Estonian, where it changes the form of nouns to reflect this direction. For example, in Finnish, the word for "house" is "talo," and in the illative case, it becomes "taloon," meaning "into the house." The illative case helps clarify the destination of an action in a sentence.