What Are Cases?

Cases are the various forms in which nouns appear in many European languages.   These forms reflect the function of the noun in the sentence.  Languages which feature cases are called inflected languages.

Old English was inflected but little inflection remains in modern English.  It can, however, be seen in pronouns and the possessive (Genitive) form of nouns.  The Possessive / Genitive is indicated by ’s and s’ endings.

How do cases function?  Why do they exist?

In English cases pronouns still have cases:

I patted the dog.    I is the Subject or Nominative – the perpetrator of the action of patting.

The dog bit me.    Me is the (Direct) Object / Accusative  – the victim of the action of patting.

With nouns:

As it’s less obvious to show how the cases work with nouns in English, let’s look at a simple Latin example to explain the concept.  Then it will be obvious.

The Latin word for girl is puella.  This is the Nominative case, the Subject of the sentence.

When the girl is the Direct Object of the sentence, she is referred to as a puellam.  This form is also known as the Accusative case.

The puella patted the horse.    Subject = Nominative case

The horse kicked the puellam.    Direct Object = Accusative case.

The advantage of this inflected system is that the word order can be changed around for emphasis without altering the sense so, wherever we see the word puella, we know that the girl carried out the action of patting: she is the Subject and the ‘perpetrator’ of the action.

Likewise, wherever we see the word puellam, we know that the girl was the victim of the kicking: she is the Direct Object and the ‘victim’ of the action.

In contrast, English relies on word order to convey all of this. We know by the position of girl in the sentence whether she was victim or perpetrator.

The Nominative Case

In all inflected languages, the Nominative case is the basic case.  It nominates, or gives a name to a person, place, animal, thing or concept.   This is the word listed in dictionaries.  The Nominative case is the Subject of the sentence; i.e. the person who carries out the action. See above.

The Accusative Case

The Accusative case is the (Direct) Object of the sentence.  Think of the object as the ‘victim’ of the verb.  If you think about the Latin example above, the puellam (Accusative) is the victim of the action of kicking.  In the English example (see above) using pronouns, me is the victim of the action of biting.

In many European languages the Accusative case also follows prepositions – often prepositions involving movement.

In English the Accusative is usually referred to as the Direct Object.

The Genitive Case

The poor old Genitive Case is the case for which I actually feel sorry since it is so often misused and abused in English.

It is the case used to indicate possession – usually ’s in the singular and s’ in the plural.

That apostrophe has become the bane of modern written English.  We see it sprinkled around as though it were a decoration on the page rather than an indicator of ownership.

The trend to add an apostrophe somewhere in any plural noun has spread to continental European countries where signs advertising SANDWICHS’ or SANDWICHE’S or SANDWICH’S are displayed boldly – perhaps for our amusement – but I suspect out of ignorance.  Sadly, anglophone countries do no better…

The rule is:  Only the owner has an apostrophe; the thing owned does not!

a    Singular nouns – ’s    the boy’s face,  the lady’s nose

b    Plural nouns – s’    the boys’ faces, the ladies’ noses

c    Irregular plural nouns – ‘s    the children’s room, the children’s faces

Don’t worry about how many things are owned; it is only the owners who are the ‘possessors’ – so only the owners have apostrophes.

The Dative Case

The clue is in the name – if you know any Latin!   The Latin verb for to give is dare and the word Dative is derived from that.   The case we know as the Dative, or the Indirect Object, was originally the case used in Latin, Greek and various other languages, for the recipients of gifts – and the person to whom or for whom something is given or done.

This idea is retained in modern English but we use a preposition to express the same thing.  The sentence in the image below illustrates this.

Note that not every sentence has a Direct Object (also known as the Accusative – see above); some may have only an Indirect Object (also known as the Dative, a term used frequently in other European languages).

Some of the most common verbs taking the Dative are verbs of giving, helping, speaking etc. which retain the original idea of passing something from one person to another.

Some examples:

I told him the truth.

I complained to the boss.

I opened the door for my mother.

Give me it!   Me is the person to whom it is given – and, therefore, the Indirect Object.

And …

There are other cases such as the Vocative, the Locative, the Instrumental and the Ablative.  While they still exist in highly inflected languages such as some of the slavic languages, they have long disappeared from English.

An example of the Vocative case still exists, however, in the cantata, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.   Jesu was the Vocative form of the name, Jesus – the name by which the person would be addressed or called (from the Latin, vocare = to call).