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Direct and Indirect Objects: Word Order in An English Sentence

The document discusses direct and indirect objects in sentences. The direct object receives the action of the verb, such as "John hit the ball" where the ball is the direct object. The indirect object is the person or thing the action is performed for, such as "My mother bought me a necklace" where me is the indirect object. Pronouns can serve as either direct or indirect objects depending on the sentence, but nouns do not change form based on their role in the sentence.

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Loretta Glória Sas
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70 views2 pages

Direct and Indirect Objects: Word Order in An English Sentence

The document discusses direct and indirect objects in sentences. The direct object receives the action of the verb, such as "John hit the ball" where the ball is the direct object. The indirect object is the person or thing the action is performed for, such as "My mother bought me a necklace" where me is the indirect object. Pronouns can serve as either direct or indirect objects depending on the sentence, but nouns do not change form based on their role in the sentence.

Uploaded by

Loretta Glória Sas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Direct and Indirect Objects

Word order in an English sentence:

s:

v:

o:

DEFINITION:

The direct object is the receiver of the action mentioned in the sentence. ... The
indirect object identifies the person/thing for whom/what the action of the verb is
performed. The indirect object is usually a person or thing.

1
Direct and indirect objects

The direct object is the receiver of the action mentioned in the sentence.

John hit the ball. (Direct object: the ball)

Be careful to distinguish between a direct object and an object complement.

They named the boy Christopher.

In this sentence ‘boy’ is the direct object and ‘Christopher’ is the object complement.

The object complement is a word that describes the object.

They elected him their mayor.

Object – him; object complement – mayor

The indirect object identifies the person/thing for whom/what the action of the verb is

performed.

The indirect object is usually a person or thing.

Examples below.

My mother bought me a necklace. (Indirect object – me; direct object – necklace)

John told Peter a story. (Indirect object – Peter; direct object – story)

Note that the object pronouns me, him, us, them etc., are not always indirect objects.

Sometimes, they also serve as direct objects.

Help me! (Here the object pronoun ‘me’ is the direct object.)

Kill him! (Here again the object pronoun ‘him’ is the direct object.)

In English, nouns and the articles and adjectives that accompany them do not change form

when they are used as objects, subjects or indirect objects.

He hit the ball. (Object – ball)

The ball is in the goal. (Subject – ball)

As you can see the same word is used as the subject and the object.

However, pronouns change their form. Pronouns have different forms for different functions.

He loves his mother. (Subject – he)

His mother loves him. (Object – him)

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