Cases of pronouns

English at first glance may seem like a complete mess for a person who is starting to learn it. Differences in various areas of grammar and vocabulary sometimes plunge into culture shock, which becomes very difficult to deal with. New parts of speech, non-existent cases or lack of gender - all this is about English. 

In English, only personal pronouns have cases. These are the nominative and object cases.

In this topic, cases are needed precisely in order to distinguish the subject from the object. 

 

Nominative/subjective 

The nominative, which can also be called subjective, is used to express the person who performs the action. In fact, we do not name anyone in particular, but only talk about gender and number. Nominative pronouns in a sentence are the subject. 

• I do this every day, it’s very funny.  
• We can sing and dance at the same time. 
• You ask me what color to dye your hair, but I cannot decide.  
• They sent me a letter a week ago, and I still didn’t get it.  
• He has some problems with his sleep  
• She always rushes home when she gets notification.  
• It rained a lot yesterday so we stayed at home.  

 

Objective case  

Used if the action is directed to an object.

• He saw me walking past the bus stop yesterday morning.  
• I know you for ages.  
• She invited us to the party she was going to have.  
• We wanted to see them on Saturday to go to the cinema together.  
• I asked him about the lesson we had before.  
• They gave her a lift to the nearest station.  
• He has been lying to him for a very long time.  
• I met stay animal and made a home for it.  

 

Important to remember 

A common mistake when studying pronouns is their confusion with possessive forms. Note that the two forms of these pronouns can be similar, and it is quite easy to confuse them, so it is better not just to remember them, but to practice distinguishing them in practice. 

Objective  case	Possessive pronouns
Me	My
You	Your
Us	Our
Them	Their
Him	his
Her	Her
It	Its