Can the phrase "in the case of" be followed by a sentence

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dut_thinker

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Hi teachers,

I just want to know whether the phrase "in the case of" can be followed by a sentence or not.
For example,
In the case of Tom can't attend the party, you go instead.

Is the above sentence natural?
Thanks in advance.
 
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charliedeut

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Hi teachers,

I just want to know whether the phrase "in the case of" can be followed by a sentence or not.
For example,
In the case of Tom can't attend the party, you go instead.

Is the above sentence natural?
Thanks in advance.

Hi,

IMO, in this context, it should be "In case Tom can't attend the party". For "in the case of" see this. If you have any further doubts about it, feel free to ask us again.

charliedeut
 

Rover_KE

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dut_thinker

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Hi Rover, thank you for your reply
 
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dut_thinker

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Hi charliedeut.
Thank you so much for your reply.
Maybe my example was not proper.
Actually I want to express something like:
There are two cases. The first one has been introduced. Now I want to talk about the second one.
Is there any naural way to pose the second case and then introduce it?
 

Raymott

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Thank you so much for your reply.
Maybe my example was not proper.
Actually I want to express something like:
There are two cases. The first one has already been introduced. Now I want to talk about the second one.
Is there any natural way to pose the second case and then introduce it?
No, there is not a natural way of introducing a second case. It depends entirely on how you've introduced the concept that there are two cases, and how you've dealt with the first one.
Depending on all this, you could say: "Moving to the second case ..."; "Considering the second case ..."; "The second case is different insofar as ..." etc.
 

BobK

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Hi,

IMO, in this context, it should be "In case Tom can't attend the party". For "in the case of" see this. If you have any further doubts about it, feel free to ask us again.

charliedeut
:up: And if you want to preserve the expression 'in the case of', you could say 'in the case of Tom's non-attendance at the party...' (that is, make the fact that Tom wasn't there into a noun). (You could say that, but I wouldn't advise it. ;-))

b
 
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