In caseis a conjunction or adverb.In case ofis a preposition.
In case
We usein caseto talk about things we should do in order to be prepared for possible future situations:
Shall I keep some chicken salad for your brotherin casehe’s hungry when he gets here?(conjunction)
In caseI forget later, here are the keys to the garage.(conjunction)
She knows she’s passed the oral exam, but she doesn’t want to say anything justin case.(adverb)
We don’t usein caseto mean ‘if’.
| We don’t know if there is a pool there. |
| We will wait until we know about the pool before we decide. |
I’ll take cashincasewe need it on the ferry.(we don’t know if we will need cash on the ferry)
In case of
We usein case of+ noun to mean ‘if and when something happens’:
[notice in a lift]
In case ofbreakdown, please press the alarm button and call this number.(if and when the lift breaks down, …)