Direct and Indirect Objects Basic Sentence Review: What are the two things that every sentence needs to be complete? o Identify the subjects and verbs in the following sentences. Circle the subjects, and underline the verbs. For each verb, identify it as either an action verb [av] or a linking verb [lv] I went to the store and bought food. Mom rises for work in the morning. Grammar is tough. My grandfather was a soldier This room is very hot. The duck is swimming with her babies. I wish I lived in Hawaii. Fill in the blanks of the following prepositional phrases. You will either have to add an object or a preposition. The lady near ___________________________ is really rich. The house ______ the white pillars is really expensive. After we _________________________________, the team will get ready. Mr. Jones left this house ___________________ twenty minutes ago. That dance in _______________________________________ should be really fun. I have to have a cup ____ coffee in the morning. Revised 02/22/22 1
Transcript
Direct and Indirect Objects
Basic Sentence Review: What are the two things that every sentence needs to be complete?
o Identify the subjects and verbs in the following sentences. Circle the subjects, and underline the verbs. For each verb, identify it as either an action verb [av] or a linking verb [lv]
I went to the store and bought food. Mom rises for work in the morning. Grammar is tough. My grandfather was a soldier This room is very hot. The duck is swimming with her babies. I wish I lived in Hawaii.
Fill in the blanks of the following prepositional phrases. You will either have to add an object or a preposition.
The lady near ___________________________ is really rich.
The house ______ the white pillars is really expensive.
After we _________________________________, the team will get ready.
Mr. Jones left this house ___________________ twenty minutes ago.
That dance in _______________________________________ should be really fun.
I have to have a cup ____ coffee in the morning.
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Revised 04/08/23 2
For the following sentences, circle the subject and underline the direct object if applicable. If the sentence contains a linking verb, then what follows the verb is not a direct object! The boy threw the football.
My family gave blood.
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Soldiers gave their lives during the great war.
I am hungry.
Harry donated one thousand dollars to the committee.
He left his coat here.
In the back room I store cans of peaches.
Life is very good to me.
I love animals.
Sally loves them too.
When all this rain is through, I’ll want sunshine.
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For the following sentences, identify whether or not the sentence is using an indirect object or a prepositional phrase. Circle the indirect object or underline the prepositional phrases. After this complete, rewrite the sentence so that you either remove or add the indirect object.
I baked this pie for mom. Would become: I baked mom a pie. The umpire threw Jimmy the ball. I gave Dr. Johnson my test results. I handed the test to Mike. I wrote a note for the teacher.
I sang Sally a song.
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Predicates
A predicate is the completer of a sentence. The subject names the "do-er" or "be-er" of the
sentence; the predicate does the rest of the work. A simple predicate consists of only a verb,
verb string, or compound verb:
The glacier melted. The glacier has been melting. The glacier melted, broke apart, and slipped into the sea.
A compound predicate consists of two (or more) such predicates connected:
The glacier began to slip down the mountainside and eventually crushed some of the village's outlying buildings.
A complete predicate consists of the verb and all accompanying modifiers and other words
that receive the action of a transitive verb or complete its meaning. The following description of
predicates comes from The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers (examples our own):
With an intransitive verb, objects and complements are included in the predicate. (The glacier is melting.) With a transitive verb, objects and object complements are said to be part of the predicate. (The slow moving glacier wiped out an entire forest. It gave the villagers a lot of problems.) With a linking verb, the subject is connected to a subject complement. (The mayor doesn't feel good.)
A predicate adjective follows a linking verb and tells us something about the subject:
Ramonita is beautiful. His behavior has been outrageous. That garbage on the street smells bad.
A predicate nominative follows a linking verb and tells us what the subject is:
Dr. Couchworthy is acting president of the university. She used to be the tallest girl on the team.
Since this page is about the completers of thoughts, it is appropriate to include a brief
description of complements. A complement (notice the spelling of the word) is any word or
phrase that completes the sense of a subject, an object, or a verb. As you will see, the
terminology describing predicates and complements can overlap and be a bit confusing. Students
are probably wise to learn one set of terms, not both.
A subject complement follows a linking verb; it is normally an adjective or a noun that renames or defines in some way the subject.
o A glacier is a huge body of ice. o Glaciers are beautiful and potentially dangerous at the same time. o This glacier is not yet fully formed. (verb form acting as an adjective,
a participle)
Adjective complements are also called predicate adjectives; noun complements are
also called predicate nouns or predicate nominatives. See predicates, above.
An object complement follows and modifies or refers to a direct object. It can be a noun or adjective or any word acting as a noun or adjective.
o The convention named Dogbreath Vice President to keep him happy. (The noun "Vice President" complements the direct object "Dogbreath"; the adjective "happy" complements the object "him.")
o The clown got the children too excited. (The participle "excited" complements the object "children.")
A verb complement is a direct or indirect object of a verb. (See above.)
o Granny left Raoul all her money. (Both "money" [the direct object] and "Raoul" [the indirect object] are said to be the verb complements of this sentence.)
An object in grammar is a sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. It denotes
somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. As an example, the
following sentence is given:
In the sentence "Bobby kicked the ball", "ball" is the object.
"Bobby" is the subject, the doer or performer, while "kick" is the action, and "ball" is the
object involved in the action.
The main verb in the sentence determines whether there can or must be objects in the
sentence, and if so how many and of what type. (See also Valency (linguistics).) In many
languages, however, including English, the same verb can allow multiple different structures; for
example, "Bobby kicked", "Bobby kicked the ball", and "Bobby kicked me the ball" are all valid
English sentences.
Contents
[hide] 1 Types of object 2 Forms of object 3 The object in
Objects fall into three classes: direct objects, prepositional objects, and non-prepositional
indirect objects. An indirect object is the recipient of the direct object, or an otherwise affected
participant in the event. For example, if three sentences are considered:
In "We threw knives", knives is the direct object of the verb threw. It corresponds to the accusative of languages with grammatical cases.
In "They sent him a postcard", him is the (non-prepositional) indirect object of the verb sent (which uses a double-object construction). It typically corresponds to the dative case.
In "We listened to the radio", the radio is the object of the preposition to, and the prepositional object of the verb listened. It can correspond to a variety of cases and complements.
In many languages, including German, Latin, and Classical Arabic, objects can change
form slightly (decline) to indicate what kind of object they are (their case). This does not happen
in English (though a few English pronouns do have separate subject and object forms); rather,
the type of object is indicated strictly by word order.
[edit] Forms of object
An object may take any of a number of forms, all of them nominal in some sense. Common
forms include:
A noun or noun phrase, as in "I remembered her advice." An infinitive or infinitival clause, as in "I remembered to eat." A gerund or gerund phrase, as in "I remembered being there." A declarative content clause, as in "I remembered that he was blond." An interrogative content clause, as in "I remembered why she had left." A fused relative clause, as in "I remembered what she wanted me to."
[edit] The object in linguistics
In inflected languages, objects may be marked using morphological case. In many
languages, the patient of a ditransitive verb is marked in the same way as the single object of a
monotransitive verb, and is called the direct object. The recipient has its own marking, and is
called the indirect object. In Latin and many other languages, the direct object is marked by the
accusative case, while the indirect object is typically marked by the dative case.
DIRECT OBJECTSDirect objects can be found in the predicate of a sentence. They show who or what receives the action of the verb or completes the meaning of the verb. To find a direct object, first find the subject and the verb; then ask yourself who or what receives the action of the verb. The answer to the "who" or "what" question is the direct object.
EXAMPLE: The boy hit the ball with the bat.Where is the action in this sentence? Yes, the verb is hit.Second, find the subject by asking who or what did the action. Who hit the ball?
Correct, the boy hit the ball; boy is the subject .Then, to find the direct object, ask yourself who or what received the action of the verb. Ask, hit what?Correct again! The ball received the action of being hit .
Note that with the bat is a prepositional phrase. A direct object will never be found in a prepositional phrase. Try one more example.
EXAMPLE: Hurricanes frequently pound the Florida coastline.
Find the subject and the verb .Correct, the subject is hurricanes and pound is the verb .Now ask who or what received the action of pounding. Ask pound what ?You're right! The coastline received the action; it is the direct object .
Two or more direct objects can form a compound direct object .
Direct Objects:
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o Some action verbs can stand alone in a sentence, and the sentence will still make sense.
Jim runs. Sally ate. Bill cried.
o Yet, there are quite a few action verbs that can’t stand alone. Most of the time, these verbs need another word or phrase to make the sentence complete.
Jim bought. [What?] Sally gave [What?] Bill threw. [What?]
o A noun or a pronoun that receives the action of a verb is called the direct object. An action verb in combination with a direct object will often make the sentence complete.
Jim bought candles [candles is the direct object] Sally gave four dollars to the salvation army. [dollars is the direct object] Bill threw the ball to Cindy [ball is the direct object]. Bill threw it [it is a direct object] Remember that that there is a clear difference between a subject and direct
object. A direct object receives the action, whereas the subject is performing the action [where an action verb is involved].
Indirect Objects
Indirect objects answer the question "to whom" or "for whom" is the action done. An indirect object always comes before the direct object.
I lent Sally my tools. Tools is the direct object, whereas Sally is the person for whom the lending is being
done. Sally comes before tools and therefore Sally is the indirect object. I could phrase this sentence another way as well, changing this indirect object to a prepositional phrase.
I lent my tools to Sally. ‘to Sally’ now works as a prepositional phrase, and there is no longer any indirect object.
Direct and Indirect Objects
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A direct object is the receiver of action within a sentence, as in "He hit the ball." Be careful
to distinguish between a direct object and an object complement:
They named their daughter Natasha.
In that sentence, "daughter" is the direct object and "Natasha" is the object complement, which
renames or describes the direct object.
The indirect object identifies to or for whom or what the action of the verb is performed.
The direct object and indirect object are different people or places or things. The direct objects in
the sentences below are in boldface; the indirect objects are in italics.
The instructor gave his students A's. Grandfather left Rosalita and Raoul all his money. Jo-Bob sold me her boat.
Incidentally, the word me (and similar object-form pronouns such as him, us, them) is not always
an indirect object; it will also serve, sometimes, as a direct object.
Bless me/her/us! Call me/him/them if you have questions.
In English, nouns and their accompanying modifiers (articles and adjectives) do not change
form when they are used as objects or indirect objects, as they do in many other languages. "The
radio is on the desk" and "I borrowed the radio" contain exactly the same word form used for
quite different functions. This is not true of pronouns, however, which use different forms for
different functions. (He [subject] loves his grandmother. His grandmother loves him [object].)
(See, also, pronoun cases.)
PRACTICE EXERCISE 2: Underline the indirect object in each of the following sentences. Remember that sentences may contain two or more indirect objects.
1.Since you are going to the sale at Target, please buy me a set of sheets, too.
2.The father bought the child an ice cream cone.
3.The doctor gave his patients elastic bands for exercise.
4.Jeremy gave his son a CD player and a stereo as a birthday gift.
5.Carlotta brought her son a set of toy soldiers once owned by her grandfather.
6.The reporters asked the mayor and the council many questions.
7.The real estate agent sold my sister a colonial style mansion.
8.The spa offered Maria and Antonio a full membership at half price.
9The company will give you a refund if you are dissatisfied with the product.
10.The instructor will provide the students assistance with their homework assignments.EXAMPLE: Joshua moved the table and chairs closer to the window.
What did Joshua move?Correct! He moved both the table and chairs, a compound direct object.
Now you are ready to try the first practice exercise.
PRACTICE EXERCISE 1: Underline the direct object in each of the following sentences. Remember that sentences may contain two or more direct objects.
1.Karen gave a dog biscuit to the puppy.
2.The ATM machine spewed money at the surprised young woman.
3.The librarian carried the books and magazines to the researcher.
4.Walking to school on a fall day, the children selected fallen leaves for show-and-tell.
5.Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
6.The company hired a personable manager for its customer service position.
7.The child needs a speech therapist to help her improve her enunciation.
8.The people of China gave pandas to the people of the United States.
9.Gary decorated the cake as a surprise for his family.
10.Although she did not consider it a good influence, Jeanetta bought a new television for the family room.
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CHECK YOUR ANSWERS ON PAGE 4
INDIRECT OBJECTSIndirect objects are also found in the predicate and answer the question "to whom" or "for whom." To identify an indirect object, first find the direct object and ask "to whom" or "for whom" the direct object is intended.
EXAMPLE: The employees gave David a party to celebrate his promotion.
What is the direct object? What was given ?Correct! The direct object is party; it receives the action of the verb gave.Now, ask yourself "to whom" or "for whom" the party was given.Correct again!! The indirect object is David; the party was given for David.
Some helpful hints:
1.An indirect object cannot exist without a direct object. The indirect object must receive something from the direct object.
2.Indirect objects usually are placed in front of a direct object.3.An indirect object will never be in a prepositional phrase.
EXAMPLE: Jessica bought her mother a new car.
Notice the word order of the sentence: mother is the indirect object and comes before the direct object car .
Also notice that if the sentence had been reworded with a prepositional phrase, it would no longer contain an indirect object.
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EXAMPLE: Jessica bought a new car for her mother.
Car is still the direct object, but the indirect object has been replaced with a prepositional phrase. Now you try it. PRACTICE EXERCISE 2: Underline the indirect object in each of the following sentences. Remember that sentences may contain two or more indirect objects.
1.Since you are going to the sale at Target, please buy me a set of sheets, too.
2.The father bought the child an ice cream cone.
3.The doctor gave his patients elastic bands for exercise.
4.Jeremy gave his son a CD player and a stereo as a birthday gift.
5.Carlotta brought her son a set of toy soldiers once owned by her grandfather.
6.The reporters asked the mayor and the council many questions.
7.The real estate agent sold my sister a colonial style mansion.
8.The spa offered Maria and Antonio a full membership at half price.
9The company will give you a refund if you are dissatisfied with the product.
10.The instructor will provide the students assistance with their homework assignments.
DIRECT OBJECTSDirect objects can be found in the predicate of a sentence. They show who or what receives the
action of the verb or completes the meaning of the verb. To find a direct object, first find the subject and the verb; then ask yourself who or what receives the action of the verb. The answer
to the "who" or "what" question is the direct object.
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DIRECT AND INDIRECT OBJECTS PS-4
EXAMPLE: The boy hit the ball with the bat.Where is the action in this sentence? Yes, the verb is hit.
Second, find the subject by asking who or what did the action. Who hit the ball? Correct, the boy hit the ball; boy is the subject .
Then, to find the direct object, ask yourself who or what received the action of the verb. Ask, hit what?
Correct again! The ball received the action of being hit .Note that with the bat is a prepositional phrase. A direct object will never be found in a
prepositional phrase. Try one more example.
EXAMPLE: Hurricanes frequently pound the Florida coastline.
Find the subject and the verb .Correct, the subject is hurricanes and pound is the verb .
Now ask who or what received the action of pounding. Ask pound what ?You're right! The coastline received the action; it is the direct object .
Two or more direct objects can form a compound direct object .
EXAMPLE: Joshua moved the table and chairs closer to the window.
What did Joshua move?Correct! He moved both the table and chairs, a compound direct object.
Now you are ready to try the first practice exercise.
PRACTICE EXERCISE 1: Underline the direct object in each of the following sentences. Remember that sentences may contain two or more direct objects.
1.Karen gave a dog biscuit to the puppy.
2.The ATM machine spewed money at the surprised young woman.
3.The librarian carried the books and magazines to the researcher.
4.Walking to school on a fall day, the children selected fallen leaves for show-and-tell.
5.Sparta defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War.
6.The company hired a personable manager for its customer service position.
7.The child needs a speech therapist to help her improve her enunciation.
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DIRECT AND INDIRECT OBJECTS PS-4
8.The people of China gave pandas to the people of the United States.
9.Gary decorated the cake as a surprise for his family.
10.Although she did not consider it a good influence, Jeanetta bought a new television for the family room.
CHECK YOUR ANSWERS ON PAGE 4
INDIRECT OBJECTSIndirect objects are also found in the predicate and answer the question "to whom" or "for
whom." To identify an indirect object, first find the direct object and ask "to whom" or "for whom" the direct object is intended.
EXAMPLE: The employees gave David a party to celebrate his promotion.
What is the direct object? What was given ?Correct! The direct object is party; it receives the action of the verb gave.
Now, ask yourself "to whom" or "for whom" the party was given.Correct again!! The indirect object is David; the party was given for David.
Some helpful hints:
1.An indirect object cannot exist without a direct object. The indirect object must receive something from the direct object.
2.Indirect objects usually are placed in front of a direct object.3.An indirect object will never be in a prepositional phrase.
EXAMPLE: Jessica bought her mother a new car.
Notice the word order of the sentence: mother is the indirect object and comes before the direct object car .
Also notice that if the sentence had been reworded with a prepositional phrase, it would no longer contain an indirect object.
EXAMPLE: Jessica bought a new car for her mother.
Car is still the direct object, but the indirect object has been replaced with a prepositional phrase. Now you try it.
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DIRECT AND INDIRECT OBJECTS PS-4
PRACTICE EXERCISE 2: Underline the indirect object in each of the following sentences. Remember that sentences may contain two or more indirect objects.
1.Since you are going to the sale at Target, please buy me a set of sheets, too.
2.The father bought the child an ice cream cone.
3.The doctor gave his patients elastic bands for exercise.
4.Jeremy gave his son a CD player and a stereo as a birthday gift.
5.Carlotta brought her son a set of toy soldiers once owned by her grandfather.
6.The reporters asked the mayor and the council many questions.
7.The real estate agent sold my sister a colonial style mansion.
8.The spa offered Maria and Antonio a full membership at half price.
9The company will give you a refund if you are dissatisfied with the product.
10.The instructor will provide the students assistance with their homework assignments.
In order to summarise what we have learned, we will now look at some typical sentence patterns from a functional perspective. We will then conclude this section by looking at some untypical patterns, on the next page.
As we've seen, the Subject is usually (but not always) the first element in
a sentence, and it is followed by the verb:
Pattern 1
Subject Verb
David
The dog
Susan
sings
barked
yawned
In this pattern, the verb is not followed by any Object, and we refer to this
as an intransitive verb. If the verb is monotransitive, it takes a Direct Object,
which follows the verb:
Pattern 2
Subject Verb Direct Object
David
The professor
The jury
sings
wants
found
ballads
to retire
the defendant guilty
In the ditransitive pattern, the verb is followed by an Indirect Object and a
Direct Object, in that order:
Pattern 3
Subject Verb Indirect Object Direct Object
The old man
My uncle
The detectives
gave
sent
asked
the children
me
Amy
some money
a present
lots of questions
Adjuncts are syntactically peripheral to the rest of the sentence. They may
occur at the beginning and at the end of a sentence, and they may occur in all
three of the patterns above:
Pattern 4
(Adjunct)
Subjec
t
Ver
b
Indirec
t Object
Direct
Object
(Adjunct
)
[1] Usually David sings in the bath
[2] Unfortunately
the professor
wants to retire this year
[3] At the start of the trial
the judge showed the jury the photographs
in a private chamber
Pattern 4 is essentially a conflation of the other three, with Adjuncts
added. We have bracketed the Adjuncts to show that they are optional. Strictly
speaking, Objects are also optional, since they are only required by
monotransitive and ditransitive verbs, as in the examples [2] and [3] above.
Match the sentences to the patterns:
1. The wall collapsed
A. Subject -- Verb
B. Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
C. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct Object
D. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
E. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
2. During the war, many people lost their homes
A. Subject -- Verb
B. Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
C. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct Object
D. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
E. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
3. I promised the children a trip to the zoo
A. Subject -- Verb
B. Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
C. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct Object
D. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
E. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
4. When he was 12, David moved to London
A. Subject -- Verb
B. Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
C. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct Object
D. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
E. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
5. Paul hired a bicycle
A. Subject -- Verb
B. Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
C. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct Object
D. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct Object
E. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
. The wall collapsedA. Subject -- VerbB. Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectC. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct ObjectD. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectE. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
2. During the war, many people lost their homes
A. Subject -- VerbB. Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectC. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct ObjectD. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectE. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
3. I promised the children a trip to the zooA. Subject -- VerbB. Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectC. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct ObjectD. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectE. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
4. When he was 12, David moved to LondonA. Subject -- VerbB. Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectC. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct ObjectD. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectE. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
See review below
5. Paul hired a bicycleA. Subject -- VerbB. Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectC. Subject -- Verb -- Indirect Object -- Direct ObjectD. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- Direct ObjectE. (Adjunct) -- Subject -- Verb -- (Adjunct)
Review
The patterns for these sentences are shown in the
table below:
(Adjun
ct)
Subje
ct
Ve
rb
Indire
ct Object
Dire
ct Object
(Adjun
ct)
Sentence 1 The wall
collapsed
= Pattern A
Sentence 2
During the war
many people
lost their homes
= Pattern D
Sentence 3 I
promised
the children
a trip to the zoo
= Pattern C
Sentence 4
When he was 12
David moved to London= Pattern E
Sentence 5 Paul hired a bicycle
= Pattern B
Lesson 4: Sentence Structure
Indirect Objects
In the last section, you learned about direct objects. Now, you will learn about indirect objects.
Indirect Objects
Howard Faulkner states in his book "Rules of the Game An Introductory English Grammar" that "If
a verb has two objects, the first, the indirect object, may indicate the recipient of the action, the second,
the direct object, what was affected:
1. He gave me two dollars.
2. She brought her father the book.
3. He asked her a question.
4. I told the jury the truth.
In the first sentence, the word me is the indirect object. The direct object is two dollars.
In the second sentence, father is the indirect object. The direct object is book.
In the third sentence, her is the indirect object. Question is the direct object.
In the fourth sentence, jury is the indirect object. Truth is the direct object.
Indirect Objects are also stated in the book Scholastic Guides Checking Your Grammar by Marvin
Terban on page 37-38.
He states that "The indirect object receives the action of the verb-indirectly. Should I send David
some extra money?"
David is the indirect object. He is receiving the money.
Exercises
Directions: Underline the indirect object in each sentence.
1. My aunt likes to give me candy for my Christmas and Birthday.
2. I bought a book for my aunt on her birthday.
3. My church provided a Thanksgiving dinner for us one year.
4. Christy gave Megan her favorite mystery book.
5. Tim's mother bought him a new basketball for his birthday.
Exercises
Directions: Write five sentences that have an indirect and direct object. Mark I.O above the
indirect object
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1. Please give me that book.
a. direct object b. indirect object c. object of the preposition d. predicate nominative
