Do you know what the nominative case is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on nominative cases, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
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Kevin
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December 20, 2021
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What is the nominative case?
According to Walden, there are many different forms of verbs in the English language, some of which are regular verbs and some are irregular verbs in different tenses.
- Present participle tense
- Simple past tense
- Perfect passive tense
- Simple future tense
- Present perfect progressive tense
- Conditional tense
- Future progressive tense
- Present perfect tense
- Present subjunctive tense
- Present perfect continuous tense
- Future perfect progressive tense
- Past progressive tense
- Infinitive tense
- Gerund tense or gerund phrase
- Conditional perfect progressive tense
- Past progressive/continuous tense
- Present indicative tense
- Indicative tense
- Past perfect progressive tense
- Simple present tense
- Past participle tense
- Present continuous tense
- Present progressive tense
- Conditional perfect tense
- Past perfect tense
- Future perfect tense
- Simple conditional tense
- Imperative tense
- Present perfect progressive/continuous tense
- Bare infinitive tense
- Conditional progressive tense
- To-infinitive tense
Today we will explore the nominative case. According to Writing Explained, in Modern English this is a grammatical case for nouns and pronouns that is used when a noun or a pronoun is used as the subject of a verb and the subject of a sentence. The list of nominative case pronouns are I, you, he, she, we, it, and they. These nominative case pronouns can be used in place of nouns. Pronouns that are not nominative include me, them, her, him and us, along with subjective pronouns. The nominative case refers to the case used for a noun or pronoun when it is the subject of a verb as opposed to the genitive case which uses a genitive pronoun, accusative case, dative case, subjective case, possessive case which shows ownership, etc. Nominatives also come into play with definite articles and indefinite articles.
According to Dartmouth, the nominative is also used in German. Here, ich = I, wir = we, du = you, ihr = y’all, Sie = you, er = he, sie = she, es = it, and sie = they. Four further nominative pronouns are man, jemand, keiner, and wer. The adjective endings depend not only on gender, but also on whether they follow a “der-word,” an “ein-word” or no article. The “der-words” are the articles der, die, das; dies-, jed-, jen-, manch-, solch-, welch-. The “ein-words” are ein, kein, and the possessive pronouns: mein, dein, sein, ihr, unser, euer, Ihr, ihr. A predicate noun can occur only with the verbs sein, heißen, werden, and occasionally bleiben. Thes often differ depending on the masculine nouns and feminine nouns. Adjectives and demonstrative pronouns must be the same case as the nouns they modify.
These can also be used with direct objects and indirect objects which are indirect receivers of action and direct receivers of an action in prose. A subject or stand-alone pronouns can be an instrumental noun in a sentence. The grammatical function of the words can be confusing, but try to look at endings like “-ing”, “-tion”, “-ly”, “-y” and others to see grammatical function.
Many different languages also contain words that mean nominative case. You may notice that some of these translations of nominative case look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of nominative case is provided by Word Sense.
- Latin: nominativus (masc.)
- Romanian: nominativ
- Armenian: ուղղական
- French: nominatif (masc.)
- Finnish: nominatiivi, nominatiivinen
- Portuguese: nominativo (masc.)
- Russian: имени́тельный (masc.)
- Estonian: nimetav
- Swedish: nominativ
- Dutch: nominatief, noemer (masc.)
- Catalan: nominatiu (masc.)
- Faroese: hvørfall
- Arabic: مرفوع
- Italian: nominativo (masc.)
- Greek: ονομαστική (fem.)
- Spanish: nominativo (masc.)
- Polish: mianujący, mianowanie (neut.)
- Icelandic: nefnifall
- German: Nominativ, nominativisch
- Korean: 주격 (ju-gyeok, 主格)
What is an example of nominative case pronouns?
The nominative case can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or literary technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of nominative cases that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these nominative case examples.
- I saw the swords of the men from the Kingdom of Alfred.
- He led Alfred’s kingdom as a great king should.
- She did different things on her day off than she normally would.
- We talked about pronunciations, an appositive, the objects of prepositions, the object of the sentence, neuter nouns, a linking verb, and the arrangement of words in my English class.
- He held his trusty sword up to the viking.
- They were surprised by the power of that large kingdom, and it was the only time they would see it.
- We talked about the logical relationships and regularities as well as the possible endings that could be found in the inflected language of the copular sentences.
- She talked to Lemma about the men’s swords that were found in the instrumental case.
- They talked about the direct object case, the prepositional case, and other different word functions.
- She gave a brief description of the various ways in which the field of Old English syntax led to the different naming case conventions and different endings of words in grammatical relationships.
- He was confused on the different types of words function in the first example and second example.
Overall, in modern English the nominative case is a case of nominative nouns and nominative pronouns in which they are the subject of a sentence. They are the main noun that affects the meaning of a sentence. This noun case and other different cases can be used with a singular noun or plural noun and can be used with modifiers and analytic language that provide further information on the subject.
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