Case

In English language, the concept of ‘case’ pertains to the grammatical relationship of a noun or a pronoun with the other words in a sentence. In other words, case is the grammatical function of a noun or a pronoun. Mainly, there are three cases in English: Subjective Case, Objective Case and Possessive Case.

In English, a noun does not change its form in any of the cases, except the possessive case. However, a pronoun changes its form in the possessive and the objective case.

The Subjective Case, also known as the Nominative Case, is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or a pronoun, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. Generally, the noun that is doing something is in the nominative. In other words, the subjective case is for a noun or pronoun that is the subject of a verb. For example: Arnab went to the bank. / She went to the bank. / Yesterday I went to see the musical show. / The man saw the tiger.

The subjective case is also used for a subject complement. For example: Samir is a doctor. / He is a great painter. / It was she.

The objective case, also known as Accusative Case, is the form of a noun or a pronoun used as an object. However, the object may be a direct object, indirect object or object of a preposition. For example: I visited Aloka. / I visited her. / Please take me to her.

In the objective case, personal pronouns changes significantly. Personal pronouns in objective case are me, him, her, us, them and whom.

The possessive case, also known as Genitive Case, is predominantly used to show possession. With nouns, it is shown with an apostrophe. For example: This is Anirban’s house.

Pronouns in the possessive case are mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs. The possessive-case adjectives are my, your, his, her, its, our, and their.