An apparatus comprising an interface and a natural language processor. The interface receives a data retrieval request formatted in a natural language and the natural language processor processes the data retrieval request. Processing the data retrieval request includes identifying database entities, database relations, or any combination thereof based words in the data retrieval request. It can also include identifying database entity criterion, database relation criterion, or any combination thereof based on words in the data retrieval request. It also includes generating a database query based on the database entities, the database relations, the database entity criterion, the database relation criterion, or any combination thereof and causing the database query to be applied to a database. Wherein, processing the data retrieval request includes grammatically tagging the data retrieval request using part-of-speech tagging techniques, e.g. grammatical type, grammatical context, semantic, or any combination thereof, and a database ontology.