Question

Identify the case of the underlined noun in the following sentence:
The king's bodyguard got killed during the attack.

• A. Nominative
• B. Objective / Accusative
• C. Possessive
• D. Dative

Answer 1

The correct option is C Possessive

Nominative case is the "subject" of the sentence i.e the person/ thing that carries out the verb in the sentence. In the sentence, the words - "king's bodyguard" is in nominative case. Hence, Option A is incorrect.

Objective case (also called Accusative case) is the "direct object" of the sentence. It is the person/ thing upon whom/ which the action of the verb is carried out. There is no noun in the objective case in this sentence. Hence, Option B is incorrect.

A noun is said to be in "possessive case" if it denotes ownership/ belonging.

In the given sentence, the underlined word "king's" denotes ownership of the word "bodyguard". Hence, the correct answer is Option C.

Dative case is the "indirect object" of the sentence i.e the person/ thing which receives the "Direct object". In the given sentence, there is noun in dative case. Hence, Option D is incorrect.

Note: One of the ways to identify whether a noun is in possessive case is to see if it is followed by an apostrophe and the letter "s". Or simply followed by an apostrophe.