Case

Case Grammar

In grammar, case is a kind of inflection.

Case is one such grammatical function. Other inflections include gender (not present in English nouns as a class), number (present in English), and more.

For example, if a noun is the subject of the sentence, it might change case. In English, this would happen if you use the personal pronoun for yourself (I/me/mine).

This is because you use the personal pronoun “I” when you are the subject of the sentence. In English grammar, there are three cases for personal pronouns, which correspond to personal pronouns as the subject, personal pronouns as the object, and personal pronouns as possessing.

Additionally, there is one case for any noun if it possesses something.

Fig. 1 - Although there are limited uses of grammatical case in English, it remains an important concept to understand.

Case Types

There aren't that many types of cases in English grammar, so it shouldn't be too taxing to review them all more in-depth.

Case in Modern English Personal Pronouns

Here is a more complete chart of cases in modern English personal pronouns.

In the chart, you’ll notice that the genetive pronouns often split. This distinction is between the independent genetive and the dependent genetive.

An independent genitive is independent because it can be independent of other words. A dependent genitive is dependent because it depends on other words.

The Case of “Who”

There is one notable instance where case changes with generic pronouns.

While “what” and “which” do not change in the nominative or accusative (and do not have genitives), “who” changes.

This just about covers case in pronouns.

Case in Modern English Nouns

If you remember the initial chart, there is only one use of case in the Modern English noun, and that is the genitive -’s and -s’.

Let's say the noun is “women.” To put “women” in the genitive case, you’d simply add a -’s.

-s’ is used if the word already ends in an s. This happens often for plural nouns. For example, say you want to put the plural of “friend” in the genitive case.

Whether you put an -’s or a -s’ at the end of a proper noun depends on the style you are using. For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style favors -'s. However, both are correct:

Sometimes, a style has you look at what follows the -s! For instance, the Chicago Manual of Style wants you to avoid three successive s. It would have you write "Silas's horse" but "Silas' saddle."

Case Examples

If you want some practice, write a few example sentences based on the cases in these prompts.

1. Write a sentence using a third-person plural dependent genitive.

2. Write a sentence using the second-person plural accusative.

3. Write a sentence using the first-person singular nominative.

Here are three sample responses. The specified case is highlighted.

1. We grabbed their scarves.

2. They like you folks.

3. I know that.

Fig. 2 - In English, a plural dependent genitive (their) must pair with a plural noun (scarves).

Case Explanation

You might want an explanation of how English can only have three cases — and in such a limited capacity — while other languages require a complex inflective system. This is because English is an analytic language.

In other words, English has its own complexities unrelated to case. Languages with many cases are called synthetic languages.

For instance, in Latin, word order doesn’t matter. Case tells you all you need to know. On the other hand, English requires word order for a sentence like:

Here, because Bill appears first, we know that Bill did the hitting and Paul was hit. Prepositions can also help explain things in English.

Here, the word “at” helps us know that Bill did the smiling and Paul was smiled at.

Interestingly, English was not always this way. While Modern English is an analytic language, Old English was a synthetic language.

Linguistic Analysis of Case

Without going too deep into linguistic analysis, it’s worth going back in time and taking a peek at how Old English differs from Modern English in terms of case.

Old English had four cases for its nouns: nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative. You’ll recognize three of them from Modern English pronouns. The last one is dative.

In the following sentence, the man would be written in the dative case, if Modern English had such a case.

This is because John (the subject) gives the cup of coffee (the direct object) to the man (indirect object).

Additionally, Old English had gender as well as strong and weak adjective declensions. Old English bears much in common with German, actually! Hopefully, though, this insight into Old English also gives you some context for Modern English case.