Basic French 2: Person and Case (definitions)

You can’t learn French without knowing these because in French you need different pronouns for different grammatical case. A few grammatical functions to begin with.

Pronoun: Stands in place of a noun which is already understood.

That man is a mass murderer. He is a mass murderer

Sarah turns tricks behind the bus station. She is a prostitute

 

Subject:  That which enacts a verb. Every verb has to be enacted by a someone or a something, and what or whoever does the verb is the subject of it.

Object:   That which is acted upon, either directly or indirectly

Direct object: Acted upon with no intermediate preposition between a verb and its object, whether a noun or pronoun

He stole the money

They murdered him 

Indirect object: Acted upon with a preposition between the verb and its object

He came for the drugs

She spat in his face

Preposition: A word standing between a verb and its object giving either direction or relation. Up, down, by, through, for, from, of, at etc.

 

Persons:

1st person:  Whoever is addressing another

2nd person: Whoever is being addressed

3rd person: Whoever, or whatever, the 1st and 2nd person are talking about

 

Case:

The form of a personal pronoun according to its grammatical function

Nominative:  The subject form of pronoun

Accusative: The direct object form of pronoun

Dative: An indirect object, either a noun following the dative preposition “at” or a dative pronoun including the prepositional concept “at” within it.

Genitive: An indirect object, either a noun following the genitive preposition “of” or a genitive pronoun including the prepositional concept “of” within it.

Disjunctive: An indirect pronoun following after a separate preposition.