Free 21st Century Grammar Handbook by Barbara Ann Kipfer

are three people here.” Depending on style, cardinals can be spelled out, as in the previous example, or written in figures: “Look, 222 bassett hounds!” See also
ordinal numbers.
    Case. The grammatical category “case” names the functions of
nouns
and
pronouns
in
sentences
and the forms such words take when they change to reflect their grammatical roles. It is not especially important to know what casemeans or what the various cases are, but it is critical to use cases correctly, particularly for pronouns, which commonly change form as they change case. Many of the most common
grammar
and
usage
errors are mistakes with case. (Other languages have much more elaborate case systems.)
    There are three cases in English:
        1.
Subjective
(or
nominative),
which is used for the
subjects
of sentences or
clauses,
as the
predicate
(or complement) of
linking verbs,
and as the
appositive
of any of the previous functions: “I see him, and he sees me.” “ Who sees whom?” “The person who sees is the subject , and the person seen is the object. ” “The viewer’s eyes are her instrument of vision.” The underlined words are all in the subjective case.
        2.
Objective
(or accusative), which is used as the
object
of a
verb,
verbal construction, or
preposition
and as the appositive for any of these functions: “The thing that is seen moves you or leaves you cold.” “People believe what they see; they trust their eyes; they trust them too much.” The underlined words are all in the objective case.
        3.
Possessive,
which is used to indicate ownership: “His eyes are blue, and hers are green.” “ Her vision is as bad as his , and they must always wear their glasses.” “ Nature ’s ways are unavoidable, yet people’s ability to adapt is remarkable.” The underlined words are all in the possessive case.
    Look at entries for specific pronouns to find the proper forms of these words in cases and more examples of how they are used correctly and incorrectly. See also
capitalization, lower case,
and
upper case.
    Catch, caught, caught. An
irregular verb
in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms.
    Caught. See
catch.
    Censor, censure. These
homonyms
sound alike to some people but have different meanings. A “censor” is a person who checks things for acceptability and removes offensive matter, while “censure” is condemnation of someone for acting badly. The words are also
verbs.
    Censure. See
censor.
    Century. The word “century” is commonly miscapitalized and erroneously hyphenated in
compound words.
Centuries should appear in
lower case
unless they are parts of
titles
of works, captions, or being emphasized for some other reason: “It happened in the thirteenth century.” They should not be hyphenated when they function as
nouns,
as in the example just given. When centuries are used as
adjectives,
they are hyphenated: “I read an eighteenth-century novel set in fourteenth-century Spain.” When centuries are capitalized, as either nouns or adjectives, both elements of the compound are
upper case:
“Variations in Nineteenth-Century Grammar.” See also
capitalization, hyphen,
and
emphasis.
    Cf. This
abbreviation
for “compare” or “see” should be confined to footnotes or endnotes and should not appear in the main text. Even in notes, it is better to use the English word rather than the
Latin
abbreviation.
    Choose, chose, chosen. An
irregular verb
in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms.
    Chose. See
choose.
    Chosen. See
choose.
    Clarity. Just as it is impossible to define
“awkwardness,”
so it is difficult to spell out just what its opposite—clarity—is and how to achieve it in writing and speaking. The only certain test is to give your writing to people and ask if they understand it all quickly, completely, and easily. If they don’t, chances are that it is not clear.
    Today it is assumed that clear writing is
colloquial—
close to everyday speech