about cases.

[Sidenote: _Reasons for speaking of_ three cases _of nouns_.]

But there are reasons why grammars treat of _three_ cases of nouns
when there are only two forms:--

(1) Because the relations of all words, whether inflected or not, must
be understood for purposes of analysis.

(2) Because pronouns still have three case forms as well as three case
relations.


57. Nouns, then, may be said to have three cases,--the
nominative, the objective, and the possessive.


I. Uses of the Nominative.

58. The nominative case is used as follows:--

(1) _As the subject of a verb_: "_Water_ seeks its level."

(2) _As a predicate noun_, completing a verb, and referring to or
explaining the subject: "A bent twig makes a crooked _tree_."

(3) _In apposition_ with some other nominative word, adding to the
meaning of that word: "The reaper _Death_ with his sickle keen."