Nominative and Accusative Cases

Nominative

1. Functions. The nominative performs three functions. It plays the role of subject, predicate, and direct address.

a) Subject. The subject relation is shown by a clear nominative form only in the case of a few pronouns: I, he, she, we they, who. Nouns and most pronouns can no longer show by their form that they are performing the part of subject, but they become clear subject nominatives through their position. " the wind blows". " The winds blow". " He is industrious".

b) Predicate. The predicate nominative is found not only after a linking verb, i.e. a copula, but also after the passive forms of certain transitive verbs: " He was made a general".

Accusative

2. Functions. The accusative has three function. It plays the role of subject, adverb, or objective predicate.

a) Accusative Object, "The dog bit my brother and me". " He is sitting by me on the sofa". " This book is worth reading".

b) Adverbal Accusative. " He stayed an hour". "This pole is a foot longer".

c) Predicate Accusative. "They supposed us to be them". " A boy whom I believed to be him just passed".