Word for noun groups depending on function?
What is the English word for the different forms that nouns can take depending on their funtion? In Danish the different groups are called "kasus" and the only one I remember is called "akkusativ."
And does this apply to English at all? In Danish the form of a noun is the same whether it is the subject or object and since this seems to be the case in English as well, I was wondering if and how these groups would apply.
I am sure that the groups have other functions, but I only remember how, in Latin, they helped determine the function of nouns.
It is also possible that I am mixing things up completely and that my question makes no sense at all. In that case, I apologize in advance.
Re: Word for noun groups depending on function?
The word is 'case'.
As the only form of the noun recognisable by a 'case-ending' is the genitive (possessive) 's, we do not generally use the word 'case' in talking about English nouns.
We do have 'nominative' and 'accusative' forms of personal pronouns, such as I/me, they/them,etc, but we generally prefer the terms 'subject' and 'object' pronouns.
Unless they have learnt a language such as Latin or German at school, most English speakers do not understand such words as case (in this sense), declension. decline, nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, locative.
