noun position in the sentence. Nouns do not change from when they change function or position in the sentence, but most personal pronouns and a few other
pronouns do.
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The following table shows the difference between Nominative, objective and possessive pronoun.
Nominative Objective
Possessive Subject
Object Adjective
Pronoun Singular
I You
He She
It Me
You Him
Her It
My Your
His Her
Its Mine
Yours His
Hers -
Plural We
You They
Us You
Them Our
Your Their
Ours Yours
Theirs
1 Nominative and Objective Case Pronouns
The following examples will show the difference between the nominative and objective pronouns.
I will see you in the library. Wait for me there
The pronouns I,he,she,we and they become me,him,her,us, and them when they are used as objects. The pronoun you and it, however, do not change form
when they change position in the sentence as mentioned in the following examples;
The bookstore opens early in the morning. It closes at 4.00 p.m.
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George E. Wishon Julia M. Burks, Let’s Write English, p. 31
2 Possessive Case Pronouns
Possessive pronouns are most often used as adjectives. The adjectival possessives are my, your, his, her, its, our, and their. Except for its, possessive
pronouns may also be used in noun position. In these positions, all of them except his will have another form. The following examples will show the difference
between the possessive pronouns and possessive adjective; Bruce’s sister expected them for dinner.
His sister expected them. The bookstore was near Rita’s dormitory.
Those pronouns are used to be adjectives. The next examples will describe the pronouns which are used to be nouns;
Their book sold a million copie. Theirs sold a million copies.
Rita finished her paper before lunch. She finished hers before lunch.
c. Sentence Pattern
Sentence is a group of words performing at least one subject and one predicate. Besides, a sentence is a grammatically complete group of words that
expresses a thought. To be grammatically complete, a group of words must contain two major structural components a subject and a predicate. The subject
identifies what the sentence is about, and the predicate asserts or asks something about the subject, or it tells the subject to do something.
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The examples of the sentence pattern are;
Jane is a brilliant scientist. He ran away from home.
Moreover, there are four sentence types. They are simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence, and compound-complex sentence.
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Andrea Lunsford Robert Connors, the St. Martin’s Handbook, p. 138.
1 Simple Sentence
Simple sentence is the sentence that consists of a single independent clause. Independent clause can be simple sentences even if they have a compound subject
or a compound predicated. The examples of the simple sentence are; The manager and her secretary went out for lunch.
He lives in New York.
2 Compound Sentence
Compound sentences contain at least two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. The following is the example of compound sentence;
The weather was very bad, so all classes were canceled.
3 Complex Sentence
Complex sentence contains one or more dependant or subordinate clauses. A dependant clause contains a full subject and predicate beginning with a word
that attaches the clause to an independent clause called the main clause. Here is the example of the complex sentence;
All classes were canceled because the weather was bad.
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In general, these grammatical areas error are mostly made by the students using tenses. They made errors because they were still interfered by their mother
tongue interference.
5. Differences between Error and Mistake
Error and mistake is different. Error is unintentionally deviantand is not self-corrigible by its author. Then, errors are the result of the failure of
performance. Besides, errors cannot be self corrected until the relevant to that error input implicit or explicit has been provided and converted into intake by
41
Marcella Frank, Modern English, Exercise for Non-native Speakers, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc, 1972, p. 1.
