Case And The Personal Pronouns

 Case and the Personal Pronouns:

The case of a pronoun is determined by the role of the pronoun plays in the sentence. This principle also applies to nouns, but since nouns have only the nominative and possessive forms, they create few problems.

 The Nominative Case: The nominative case is used in these functions:

1. Subject of the sentence: I take long walks.

2. Predicate noun: If anyone calls, it will be I.'

The Possessive Case:

The possessive case is usually used correctly by native-born English speakers. The forms in parentheses in the above table (mine, yours, hers, ours, and theirs) never preceded a noun; they are used in predicate construction: This is my book. The book is mine.

 * The nominative case is also used with words in apposition, direct address, and the usually understood you in the imperative mood, but these present few problems.

The Objective Case: The objective case is the most difficult of the three cases, and a knowledge of the grammatical rules is essential in using them correctly and without doubt. These are the functions that require the objective case:

Objective Pronouns used as

1. Objective of verb:

 a. We invited them.

b. He invited him.

c. He invited me.

d. You should invite us.

2. Object of a preposition:

a. Between you and me, he is mistaken.

b. Waheed went with them.

 c. One of us must go.

 3. The indirect object of a verb.

This function should present no difficulty if you think of the indirect object as a prepositional phrase with the preposition t- understood.

a. He paid us a doubtful compliment. B. My father gave me a dollar.

4. The subject of an infinitive:

 a. The secretary invited them to enter.

 b. The President has invited us to attend the reception.

c. The nurse let him drink a little sugar water.

 d. The scout believed them to be us.

Note: Sentence d. is a very special case, not to be confused with the ordinary use of the linking verb, to be, which takes the nominative. (Compare: The scout believed that the raiders were we.) In 'd' us has the objective case to agree with the objective case of them, which is the subject of the infinitive