Direct and indirect object

April 18, 2022February 27, 2024 reshana

Direct and indirect object

The sentence formula 8 and 9 involves direct object and indirect object. It explains how to frame a sentence with a direct object and an indirect object. So let’s first see what is direct and indirect object.

Direct Object

The subject acts upon a thing and is called the DIRECT OBJECT. It receives the action of the verb. It is the noun or pronoun receiving the action.

It answers the question “what” or “whom“. If nothing answers what or whom, there is no direct object. Direct objects can be noun, pronoun, phrases or clauses. Let’s see the formula.

Subject + verb + direct object(who or what)

First find the subject and verb(action word) in the sentence.

Then as the question ‘whom‘ or ‘what‘ the verb is acting upon. Direct objects are mostly nouns, but it can also be a pronoun, phrase or clause.

The words in orange are subjects, blue are verbs and in pink are direct objects.

1. I found the book.

2. Sam took the pen.

3. Who made the pot?

4. You eat by yourself.

5. We designed the jewels.

6. They took the bus.

7. Who spilled the milk?

8. You should pass the ball.

9. The children eat ice cream.

10. The truck hit the wall.

11. She opened the packet.

12. I ate the burger.

13. She stole the watch.

14. I bought a clock and sold a watch.

(This sentence has two direct objects. The direct object for the verb bought is clock and the direct object for the verb sold is watch. ‘I’ is the subject.).

15. I caught the ball.

16. Indians eat rice.

17. I love coffee.

18. She loves climbing the mountains.

19. Sarah paints a scenery.

20. My sister gifted a pen.

21. I wrote the script.

22. I liked the profile.

23. I dropped the camera.

24. She spilled the milk.

25. I filled the bucket.

Indirect Object

Indirect objects receive the action of the direct object. They are used for intransitive verbs and at times preceded by prepositions. An indirect object answers the questions of “for whom”, “to whom”, or “for what”.

Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object.

1. I gave Sam the box.

Subject – I

Verb – gave

Direct object – the box

Indirect object – Sam

The question that should be asked for this sentence is, To whom did I give the box?

Answer: to Sam. So, Sam is the indirect object.

More examples of indirect objects.

Example	Direct Object	Indirect Object	Verb
I gave her his pen.	pen	her	gave
Sam ate his burger.	burger	his	ate
Sara gave him an invitation.	invitation	him	gave
You must tell the details to the professor.	the details	the professor	tell
Take his file. (No subject)	file	his	Take
I sent Sam a receipt.	receipt	Sam	sent
I have bought my husband a car.	a car	husband	bought
I paid Ralph the money.	money	Ralph	paid
I gave Paul the pillow.	pillow	Paul	gave
I filled him his bucket.	bucket	him	filled
The lecturer told us a story.	story	lecturer	told

Worksheet

Phrasal verbs

Active voice passive voice

Direct object indirect object

Error correction

Analytical paragraph

Subject verb concord

Commands and requests

Quantifiers

Sentence Formula – Part 1

November 14, 2021January 5, 2022 reshana

Sentence part 1:

How to start the sentence with 'there'?

All living organisms communicate with each other in their own ways including birds, animals etc. Humans communicate through languages. We are having various languages according to the region we live in.

There are a set of rules to be followed to speak or write a particular language. In order to speak or write that language we have to master that language and practice it a lot to master it.

For that purpose schools and colleges have been created to impart and expand our learning abilities for us to be successful in future. Only if we know a particular language we can further keep on learning and understand what is being taught in colleges and universities. So at school level itself we should master the language. This helps us a lot in facing seminars, projects, assignments, group discussions, even simple examinations etc.

There should be a proper correlation between what we think and what we speak or present. Or else it would be total disaster. To avoid these let’s learn from basic.

This sentence formula one is useful for primary students and beginners to help frame sentences at ease. Hope its helpful for teachers. I have attaches a pdf worksheet too, as practice makes a man perfect.

Our sentence formula 1 is:

There + be verb + Subject.

First let’s see what ‘be’ verbs are:

am, is was, were, are.

am	is	was	were	are
Used when the subject is "I", i.e., when I talk about myself.	Used when the subject is singular and when the event happens in the present tense.	Used when the subject is singular and when the event happens in the past tense.	Used when the subject is plural and when the event happens in the past tense.	Used when the subject is plural and when the event happens in the present tense.

There + be verb + Subject.

This formula is beginners and primary students who are introduced to be verbs. It helps them frame sentences with be verbs. The teacher can use this formula for students who find it difficult to frame sentences or for all students indeed to form proper sentences.

Like, how we learn formulas in Math and tables which we remember for a lifetime (which is because of repetition), we can adopt this in our English too for those who find it difficult to learn the language. Even if they forget while speaking they can just recall the formula and frame accordingly.

In this formula, we start our sentence with “There”, followed by the be verbs and then a subject.

As given in the table above, the be verbs are applied according to the subject whether its singular or plural and whether the event happens in the past, present or future tense.

So always remember while speaking or writing look for the SUBJECT and the TENSE and write accordingly.

For example,

In the first sentence in the picture,

“There is a bottle near my table”.

Bottle – singular.

Event – present tense.

So, we use “is”.

Similarly examine for the other 4 sentences in the picture above.

Start your sentence with ‘there’, use be verbs according to your sentence(depending on whether the event happens in past or present tense and whether the subject is singular or plural). Refer the table above.