<p>Case*</p>
<p>-<em>A pronoun in the subjective case (also called the</em>nominative case) is the subject of a verb. These pronouns "do" something or "are" something. The subjective pronouns are<em>I, you, he, she, it, we, they,</em>and<em>who. (who</em>is usually a relative pronoun, which I will discuss later.)*</p>
<p>-<em>A pronoun in the objective case (also called the</em>accusative case) is the object of a verb or preposition. These pronouns are<em>me, you, him, her, it, us, them,</em>andwhom. When the pronoun is the object of a verb, it is either a direct object or an indirect object. I cannot see distinguishing between these two forms as being useful on the SAT, however, so I will not elaborate on that.</p>
<p>-<em>A pronoun in the possessive case (also called the</em>genitive case) modifies a noun. The possessive pronouns are<em>mine, yours, his, hers, its, our, theirs,</em>and*whose.</p>
<p>Nouns also take all three forms, but in English there is no distinction in how we write or speak nouns that are in the nominative or objective cases. For example, one can say that Bob ate the city, or that the city ate Bob. In the first clause (I will discuss clauses in detail later)<em>Bob</em>is in the subjective case; in the second clause<em>Bob</em>is in the objective case, as it is the direct object of*ate.</p>
<p>Case errors in comparisons: In everyday speech we often use the incorrect case in comparisons. Specifically, we tend to use the objective case instead of the subjective case. This error stems from our tendency to omit the verb in the second part of the comparison. Now, this habit itself is not ungrammatical; but it does lead to the aforementioned case error, which<em>is</em>ungrammatical. Consider the following sentence, which would not likely even raise an eyebrow if used in normal speech:
You are a better runner than me.
You<em>is being used in the subjective case here (although we cannot tell this by just looking at the word, as</em>you<em>is one of those pronouns that do not visibly inflect between the subjective and objective cases); it is the subject of the verb</em>are.<em>me, which is in the objective case, is being compared to the subjective</em>you. This discontinuity must be fixed by changing<em>me</em>to*I. This may sound somewhat awkward, but this feeling should go away if you actually say the otherwise implicit verb, as in:
You are a better runner than I am.
This error appears frequently on the SAT.</p>
<p>Case errors with relative pronouns: I wont go into detail about how the concept of restrictive and non-restrictive clauses applies to relative pronouns; all you really need to know is what they are.<em>Who</em>and<em>whoever</em>are subjective relative pronouns.<em>whom</em>and<em>whomever</em>are objective relative pronouns. The relative pronouns<em>that, which,</em>and<em>whichever</em>can be in either the subjective or objective case. The rules for determining which case is being used apply similarly to relative pronouns: if the pronoun is the subject of a verb, it is in the subjective case; otherwise, it is in the objective case. Because<em>who</em>visibly inflects between the cases, I will present two sentences using that word and its variation to example when each case is appropriate:
I caught the turkey whom I knew.</p>
<p>I want to catch the turkey who knows me.
In the first sentence<em>I</em>is the subject of the verb<em>knew, and</em>whom<em>(which is referring to</em>turkey) is the object of that verb. (Ordinarily, the object of a verb will appear after it. It is important to note, though, that relative pronouns are usually exceptions to this.) In the second sentence<em>who</em>(which is also referring to<em>turkey) is the subject of the verb</em>knows, and<em>me</em>is the object of that verb.</p>
<p>(Its also worth noting that the relative pronoun<em>which</em>does not work with people and that<em>who</em>only works with people and personified turkeys.)</p>
<p>Errors with making the possessive case: In order to make a singular noun possessive, we generally add an apostrophe and then an<em>s. In order to make a plural noun possessive, we generally add merely an apostrophe if the word already ended in an</em>s. These basic guidelines are exampled below:
dog<em>--></em>dog's
pencil<em>--></em>pencil's
George<em>--></em>George's</p>
<p>dogs<em>--></em>dogs'
pencil<em>--></em>pencils'
the Georges<em>--></em>the Georges'
If, however, the plural noun does not end in an<em>s</em>(as is the case with, for example,<em>women), you must add an apostrophe and an</em>s.*</p>
<p>Another issue arises when we are forming the possessive with a compound noun (i.e., a noun phrase). When each of the nouns within the noun phrase is possessing at least one of whatever the noun that is being modified is, we use the possessive case for each of the compound noun's nouns, as in:
Ironically, Bob's and Fred's cars broke down at the same time.
If the noun that is being modified is possessed jointly by the nouns in the compound noun, use the possessive on only the noun closest to the noun that is being modified, as in:
My mother and father's mansion should satisfactorily suit my housing requirements.</p>
<p>Case errors with compound subjects and objects: Contrary to what many people's speech may suggest, each noun in a compound subject or compound object must be inflected to the same case as the other nouns' case in that phrase. Consider these ungrammatical sentences:
Him and Bob went to the store together.</p>
<p>Sally, Joe, and her are about to start a new pasta club.</p>
<p>I do desire that you apprise my pet and I of the reasons for your election to depart.
These sentences should be corrected thus:
He and Bob went to the store together.</p>
<p>Sally, Joe, and she are about to start a new pasta club.</p>
<p>I do desire that you apprise my pet and me of the reasons for your election to depart.
In the third sentence<em>pet and me</em>is the compound object of the verb*apprise.</p>
<p>Case errors with appositives: Appositives define or elaborate on the nouns that they are adjacent to, as in (the appositives are underlined):
My friend<em>Bob</em>is a good swimmer because he is a fish.</p>
<p>A loyal turkey, Sam was eaten without objection.</p>
<p>My mother,*Sue, is a female.</p>
<p>My company,<em>the best accounting firm in the nation, likes to make money.
(In case you're curious about why commas were used in the third sentence but not the first, it has to do with restrictive versus non-restrictive modification. In general, when a modifier restricts what it is modifying, we use commas; if not, we don't. This is usually true for appositives. For example, if we write</em>My friend, Bob,, the modification is non-restrictive, meaning that Bob is your only friend. Similarly, if we write*My mother Sue, the modification is restrictive; this implies that you have more than one mother.)</p>
<p>Anyhow, appositives must match the case of the noun that they are modifying. For example:
We revolutionaries are free.</p>
<p>They have left us revolutionaries no option.*</p>
<p>The best students in the class, she and I, will receive poor grades on the paper.</p>
<p>I will give the two best students in the class, her and him, poor grades on the paper to facilitate this example sentence.</p>
<p>Guys I have read this several times, but I still do not understand these. Please Help me.</p>
<p>Side Questions: What are clauses?</p>