Search results for 'tag:Nominative tag:Apostrophes' matching tags 'Nominative' and 'Apostrophes'

Re: Pronoun Case. Please Help.

AlpheccaStars — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:39:06 GMT

Eddie88
I was wondering when you said, 'right again! the pronoun and it's object must make up...'

In America (assuming this is where you are based) do they use apostrophes to show possession of these pronouns? (it's object). Where I am from, we omit the apostrophe to avoid the confusion with the contraction, 'it is.'

The it's is not correct, even in American English.

It's = = it is.

its = = possessive case of it.

Eddie88
What I am saying is that 'that must be he on the plane' isn't he the subject of the sentence?

He is in the predicate nominative case. However, in casual speech following "must be" we break the grammatical rule and use the objective case. .

Re: Pronoun Case. Please Help.

Eddie88 — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:15:03 GMT

Great, thanks a lot!

I was wondering when you said, 'right again! the pronoun and it's object must make up...'

In America (assuming this is where you are based) do they use apostrophes to show possession of these pronouns? (it's object). Where I am from, we omit the apostrophe to avoid the confusion with the contraction, 'it is.'

Secondly, I don't quite understand what you mean to my answer to the following question above: Now, I understand this; however, could the justification be equally sound if I were to say that it is the nominative (subjective) case because the pronoun is the subject of the sentence, so it should be HE?

What I am saying is that 'that must be he on the plane' isn't he the subject of the sentence? In this case it means that it is correct to have he not him... But now that I re-ask the question, I am beginning to realise that he/him would not be the subject of the sentence...'that' would be the subject...correct? And he/him is the object of the sentence. But in this case it is the nominative case because the pronoun follows the 'be verb'. Am I on track here?

Everything else was clear and superb, thanks!!

Re: Help with nominative-accusative case.

Marvin A. — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 17:13:02 GMT

>> My problem (took me long enough, didn't it?) is that English is described as having a vestigial normative-accusative case in its use of pronouns and passive voice but I don't see it. Can someone explain how normative-accusative applies to the English language?   <<

I think they're just trying to say that although English doesn't inflect (change the form of) regular nouns in the nominative and accusative case, like for example, Greek or Latin, it still does with pronouns.

For example: in Latin the sentence "The boy loves the girl" would be: "Puer puellam amat"
Puer = boy. Nominative case (in the accusative case it would be "puerum")
Puellam = girl. Accusative case. (Direct object). (in the nominative case it would be "puella")

But to say, "The girl loves the boy" would be "Puerum puella amat".

Notice that it was not necessary to change the order of the words in Latin, because it was clear who was the subject and who was the object, based on the *form* of the word. The nominative form looks and sounds different from the accusative form (w/a few exceptions) in Latin.

The same was true for Old English. For example, the word for "name" in Old English (e.g. how English was spoken 1000 years ago) was "nama". In the accusative, it was "naman". So, English use to change the form of the word to show how it was used in a sentence.

Modern English generally doesn't have many cases any more. For regular nouns there are only two. One case that functions as the nominative, accusative, and dative, and the other case functions as the genitive.

Thus: the word thing:

Standard case: thing   things
Genetive case: thing's   things'

The appostrophe s comes from Middle English -es, thus the apostrophe means that the "e" was left out.

But...English still shows a clear distinction with pronouns in the nominative and the accusative/dative

Thus:
Nominative: He
Accusative/Dative: Him
Genitive: His

the word "you" use to also have a distinction: the nominative case was "ye", and the accusative was "you". The genitive is still "your". The first person sg. pronoun still retains the distinction: I vs me vs my. So in essence, by saying "you are good" is the equivalent of saying "Me am good" because "ye" used to be used as the subject: thus "ye are good."

That's why we have a "vestige" of a nominative-accusative/dative distinction left over.

Re: Lesson on issue of descriptive adjective and choice

Mister Micawber — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 13:23:37 GMT

Actually, I think I have already said what I had to say in my response to your post about the cats and alligators. But I'll go over some of your concerns:

I think I saw from a post here that kind of said that many times, having "descriptive adjectives" in front of UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS trigger the need (necesssity??) to have the indefinite article "a" -- I don't think there is the need, but certainly there is the possibility:

I have great faith in you.
I have a great sadness in my heart for their plight.

and I think Mr. M said to the effect that in many cases, the choice to put "a" or not to put it is optional for the cases like one below ("a great happiness" vs. just "great happiness")-- generally optional because both are possible; each case demands its own decision on which should be used.

Here, I think happiness is one-hundred percent uncountable noun??, not a variable noun.-- No, we have no context, and the noun itself is capable of either form.

His dog is a great happiness in his life. (Sounds good, isn't it? I think the writer is talking about a kind of happiness and not the general term, happiness.) -- I agree

His dog is great happiness in his life. (Sounds good, I think, and the writer seems to be saying that his dog is great happiness in a general sense, not to mean any kind of happiness.) -- I don't agree. You have set up a predicate nominative. His dog has brought great happiness into his life would be fine. I leave further analysis to you.

1) So, can I say in almost all the cases, the choice to put a or not to put a when you have some descriptive adjectives in front of them depend on the context and perspective of the writer? -- Yes, that sounds good-- but more critical is the semantic meaning.

2) Can you give me some cases where the choices as described above in not available? -- Not offhand, but I am sure there are many-- I am sure that not all candidate nouns are capable of such permutations.

3) Can you check if these are right?

This form of words is fantastic English. -- OK

This form of words is perfectly acceptable English. -- OK

This form of words is "good" English -- OK

This form of words is a fantastic English.-- Not so.

This form of words is a perfectly acceptable English. -- Not so.

This form of words is a "good" English. -- Not so

This form of words is a regional English -- OK. English and Englishes are specific concepts in linguistics; perhaps that is why the countable form is not so attractive in your sentences. Context, flexibility, semantics.
4) Right now, I have this uneasy feeling when I try to put what look to be descriptive adjectives in front of uncountable nouns because I am afraid I might accidently turn them into paticular kinds of something and not to mean generally. Do you think my feeling regarding that is unwarranted because the control is in me whether I want to make them to mean kinds of something or refer (or use them to mean something) in general terms? -- Fear not; just think what you are trying to say: are you speaking of a general concept or an individual instance? and choose accordingly.

5) Can I be able to put "a" in front of uncountable nouns which have what I think are descriptive adjectives? -- Generally yes, if you realize that it then becomes countable.

Is something in apostrophes qualify like "good" above qualify as a descriptive adjective? -- Yes.

Help. -- I hope this did.

Study guide.

Matrix4583 — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 02:03:02 GMT

Hey, i'm new here. My name is Tim and I got this forum from a friend of mine. He told me that this might help me with the problem i got. I have a brother that is 16 years old and i'm 23( in the US Army). He needs help with his english. The teacher gave him the study guide, but no answer on it. So i ask him to give the study guide to me and i'll help him with it. Well, since i'm busy soo much on school and my job, it's impossible for me to do this. I was wondering if you have some time and help me with this problem. I really appreciate it. Here's the problem.

Language Art:

A. apostrophe
B. Synonym
C. noun or pronoun
D. quotations mark
E. Adjective
F. verb or verb phrase
G. abbreviation
H. antonyms
I. root word.
J. proper nouns
K. Verb
L. action and linking
M. gerund
N. adverb
O. gender
P. subject
Q. Nomniative, object and possessive
R. Predicate nominative
S. Present, past and future
T. direct object.
U. prepositions
V. appositive
W. Object of a preposition

1.____ The subject of a sentence may be what part of speech?
2.____ States what the subject does, is or has in a sentence.
3.____ Sometimes called the simple predicate
4.____ The main part of a without any affixes.
5.____ Two kinds of a Verb.
6.____ What moddifies noun or pronoun?
7.____ What follow a linking verb or action verb?
8.____ The simple tense of verb.
9.____ Follow a preposition.
10.____ Tells more about another noun.
11.____ Answer "what?" or "whom?"
12.____ who or what the sentences about.
13.____ The three cases of personal pronoun.
14.____ personal pronoun have number, person and what?
15.____ Usually modifies a verb, but can sometimes modify an adjective.
16.____ show relationship between it's object and some other word in a sentence.
17.____ A participle that end in "ing" and functions as a noun.
18.____ needed to form possessive nouns and contractions.
19.____ Capitalized because they are particular person, places, and things.
20.____ A short way of writing a word consisting of some of the letters in the word followed by a period.
21.____ Used to show where the exact word of a speaker begin and end.
22.____ Opposite meaning.
23.____ A word that is similar to another in meaning.

That's it. Hoooha.

Study guide.

Matrix4583 — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 22:08:35 GMT

Re: Tenses

Mister Micawber — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 05:27:50 GMT

Hi Guest,

1) 'I had checked and agree with she should take the responsible.' This sentence is wrong-- it should be 'I checked, and agree that she should take the responsibility.' He checked in the past and now agrees in the present. No problem.

2) 'When to use had had?' Use the past perfect when it is necessary to make it clear that one event in the past happened before another event in the past: 'I had finished my breakfast when the coffee arrived.'

3) 'When to use ITS or use 's your's business, or your business'? 'Its' and 'your' are possessive pronouns, and none of these take an apostrophe: 'my house, your house, her/his/its house, our house, their house'.

4) 'you and me, or you and i' It depends on the grammatical case: 'me' is an object, and 'I' is nominative. 'You and I are good friends' (Subject of the sentence); 'He gave it to you and me' (object of the preposition 'to').

Is that enough information?

Re: Trouble with apostrophe

pemmican — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 15:29:14 GMT

Oh yes- I stand corrected- silly me!
It's a nominative plural of course, therefore no apostrophe!! I'm sorry.

Re: Apostrophe usage

pemmican — Tue, 21 Oct 2003 09:59:26 GMT

No apostrophes anywhere!

All the forms you mentioned are nominative-plural forms and no forms of the genitive case.