nominative case
Pluralnominative cases
- 1The grammatical case that marks the subject, or agent, of a finite verb.
In the German sentence "Der Hund beißt den Mann," the dog is in the nominative case.
Latin nouns in the nominative case often end in -us, -a, or -um.
Note
English keeps the nominative only in a handful of pronouns (I, he, she, we, they and who, set against me, him, her, us, them and whom) so the case is easiest to see in other languages. Latin and Russian mark it on the noun itself, German mainly on the article: der Hund is the dog doing the biting.
- 2The word or phrase that serves as the subject of a verb.
Every Verb, except in the Infinitive or the Participle, hath its Nominative Caſe, either expreſſed or implied [4]: as, "Awake, ariſe, or be for ever fall'n: that is, "Awake ye, &c."
1763, Robert Lowth, A Short Introduction to English GrammarNote
Older grammars used the phrase for the subject word itself. Robert Lowth's Short Introduction to English Grammar holds that every verb, apart from infinitives and participles, has its nominative case, spoken or understood, so the unspoken ye of a command such as "Awake, arise" counts as one. Grammarians now say subject, and keep the case meaning for the form a word takes.
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