Agreement Of Case

1. John has brought the books.

2. He got them at the bookstore.

3. Flora is sewing.

4. She loves to sew.

5. My father and I went to see the Dewey parade.

6. We enjoyed the occasion very much.

The noun or pronoun used as the subject of a predicate verb is in the nominative case.

1. James, come here.

2. Herbert, take the third place.

3. Our Father, who art in Heaven.

4. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?

5. Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.

The italicized nouns in the above sentences are said to be used in direct address.

The noun used in direct address is in the nominative case.

1. George Washington was the father of his country.

2. Abraham Lincoln was the emancipator of the slaves.

3. The boy who climbed the liberty-pole was Peter.

The noun or pronoun following an intransitive verb, and meaning the same person or thing as the subject, as in the above sentences, agrees with the subject in case.

A predicate noun used with a finite verb is in the nominative case.

The subject of an infinitive is in the objective case: I knew him to be the robber.

Here him is the subject of the infinitive and is in the objective case. Robber is in the objective case to agree with him.

1. Give the book to that tall boy, William Brown.

2. That young man, my brother, will take the package for you.

3. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim's Progress, was a writer of pure English.

In these sentences the nouns William Brown, brother, and author are in the same case as the nouns they explain. William Brown, brother, and author are here said to be appositives.

An appositive agrees with its subject in case.

Name the cases of the nouns in italics in the following sentences, and apply the rule in each case.

1. - Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day

When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array!

2. Come back, come back, he cried in grief,

Across this stormy water; And I'll forgive your Highland chief, My daughter, O my daughter!

3. Washington was first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.

4. Mr. Hardy, the artist, sailed for Europe yesterday.

Write sentences using predicate nouns both with finite verbs and with infinitives; write other sentences using appositives and nouns in direct address.

Tell in each case which of these relations you have used.