Further examples: 1. Kabir, the great reformer, was a weaver. 2. Yesterday I met your uncle, the doctor. 3. Have you seen Ganguli, the artist's drawings? In sentence 1, the noun in apposition is in the Nominative Case. In sentence 2, the noun in apposition is in the Accusative Case. [Why?] In sentence 3, the noun in apposition is in the Genitive Case. [Why?]
Answers
Nouns and Pronouns in English are said to display case according to their function in the sentence.
Nouns have three cases:
Subjective
Objective
Possessive
The case of the noun depends on how the noun functions in the sentence. Is the noun used as the main subject of the sentence? Is the noun used to show possession of something else? Is the noun in the sentence receiving something from another object? Does the noun follow a preposition? Answering the above questions can help you determine the type of nouns found in a sentence.
Cases of Nouns: Subjective
Subjective nouns are sometimes referred to as nominative nouns. These nouns either are the subject of the sentence or they are used as a predicate noun, which follows a ‘be’ verb and renames the main subject of the sentence. These are likely the easiest nouns to spot, as they are typically the subject of the verb in the sentence.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of subjective/nominative nouns:
Mary drove to the store. Mary is a subjective noun; she is the one who drove.
Elvis sang for many years. Elvis was the one doing the singing; Elvis is the subjective noun.