Page 28 - English Grammar - 6

4. The children were afraid of mice.
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5. The dwarfs rode across the fields on their ponies.
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Let’s Learn Case of Nouns

The case of a noun tells us about the position of a noun in a sentence and its grammatical
function as a noun or a pronoun.

The position and the function of a noun or a pronoun in a sentence determines its case.

There are three cases.

Subjective or Objective or Possessive or
nominative case accusative case genitive case

Subjective or Nominative Case

When a noun is used as the subject of a verb, it is said to be in the subjective or nominative
case. The subject answers the question: who?
Hari writes a letter. (Who writes a letter?)
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Shreya is an intelligent girl. (Who is an intelligent girl?)
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Nouns: Gender, Number, and Case
Here, Hari and Shreya are subjects of the verbs writes and is respectively. They are, therefore,
said to be in the subjective or nominative case.

Objective or Accusative Case
When a noun is used as the object of a verb, it is said to be in the objective or accusative case.
The object answers the question: what? or whom?

Soham eats a banana. (Sohan eats what?)
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John reads the Bible. (John reads what?)
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Here, banana and Bible are objects of the verbs eats and reads respectively. They are,
therefore, said to be in the objective or accusative case.

Possessive or Genitive Case

We use an apostrophe (’) with a noun (with or without s) to show possession.

We use an apostrophe (’) with s when a noun is singular.
the car of my father—my father’s car
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the pen of the teacher—the teacher’s pen
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the crops of farmer—the farmer’s crops
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In the above groups of words, father, teacher, and farmer are singular nouns. We used
an apostrophe (’) with s to form their possessives.

We use an apostrophe (’) with s, when a plural noun does not end in s.
the park of children—the children’s park
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