Pali nouns inflect for three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter) and two numbers (singular and plural). The nouns also, in principle, display eight cases: nominative or paccatta case, vocative, accusative or upayoga case, instrumental or karaṇa case, dative or sampadāna case, ablative, genitive or sāmin case, and locative or bhumma case; however, in many instances, two or more of these cases are identical in form; this is especially true of the genitive and dative cases.
a-stems, whose uninflected stem ends in short a (/ə/), are either masculine or neuter. The masculine and neuter forms differ only in the nominative, vocative, and accusative cases.
| Masculine (loka- "world") | Neuter (yāna- "carriage") | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | loko | lokā | yānaṁ | yānāni |
| Vocative | loka | |||
| Accusative | lokaṁ | loke | ||
| Instrumental | lokena | lokehi | yānena | yānehi |
| Ablative | lokā (lokamhā, lokasmā; lokato) | yānā (yānamhā, yānasmā; yānato) | ||
| Dative | lokassa (lokāya) | lokānaṁ | yānassa (yānāya) | yānānaṁ |
| Genitive | lokassa | yānassa | ||
| Locative | loke (lokasmiṁ) | lokesu | yāne (yānasmiṁ) | yānesu |
Nouns ending in ā (/aː/) are almost always feminine.
| Feminine (kathā- "story") | ||
|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | kathā | kathāyo |
| Vocative | kathe | |
| Accusative | kathaṁ | |
| Instrumental | kathāya | kathāhi |
| Ablative | ||
| Dative | kathānaṁ | |
| Genitive | ||
| Locative | kathāya, kathāyaṁ | kathāsu |
i-stems and u-stems are either masculine or neuter. The masculine and neuter forms differ only in the nominative and accusative cases. The vocative has the same form as the nominative.
| Masculine (isi- "seer") | Neuter (akkhi- "fire") | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | isi | isayo, isī | akkhi, akkhiṁ | akkhī, akkhīni |
| Vocative | ||||
| Accusative | isiṁ | |||
| Instrumental | isinā | isihi, isīhi | akkhinā | akkhihi, akkhīhi |
| Ablative | isinā, isito | akkhinā, akkhito | ||
| Dative | isino | isinaṁ, isīnaṁ | akkhino | akkhinaṁ, akkhīnaṁ |
| Genitive | isissa, isino | akkhissa, akkhino | ||
| Locative | isismiṁ | isisu, isīsu | akkhismiṁ | akkhisu, akkhīsu |
| Masculine (bhikkhu- "monk") | Neuter (cakkhu- "eye") | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | bhikkhu | bhikkhavo, bhikkhū | cakkhu, cakkhuṁ | cakkhūni |
| Vocative | ||||
| Accusative | bhikkhuṁ | |||
| Instrumental | bhikkhunā | bhikkhūhi | cakkhunā | cakkhūhi |
| Ablative | ||||
| Dative | bhikkhuno | bhikkhūnaṁ | cakkhuno | cakkhūnaṁ |
| Genitive | bhikkhussa, bhikkhuno | bhikkhūnaṁ, bhikkhunnaṁ | cakkhussa, cakkhuno | cakkhūnaṁ, cakkhunnaṁ |
| Locative | bhikkhusmiṁ | bhikkhūsu | cakkhusmiṁ | cakkhūsu |