REVIEWING DIRECT AND INDIRECT OBJECTS

Direct Objects

A direct object is a noun or pronoun that directly receives the action of a

verb. A good way to find a direct object in a sentence is to find the verb
and then ask the question who or what.

“Jake threw the ball.”

 

The object in this sentence, which we identified as ball, is a direct object. If

we look at the verb (threw) and ask “who/what is being thrown,” the
answer is ball.

Here’s another example sentence:

“Kerry and I ate bacon for breakfast this morning.”

 

The verb here is ate, so we would ask “who/what was being eaten” to find
the direct object. In this case, the word bacon answers that question, so
bacon is the direct object of the sentence.

Now, take a look at this sentence:

“She stood at the train station for an hour.”

 

If you follow the steps we took for the last two examples, you should notice
that this sentence does NOT have a direct object. There is no word that
answers the question “who/what is being stood.” Remember, a sentence
does not need to have an object for it to be a sentence; all it needs is a
subject and a verb.

Indirect Objects

Now let’s take a look at indirect objects. Instead of receiving the action
directly from the verb, the indirect object receives the action directly from
the direct object. That’s where the indirect connection to the verb comes
in. A good way to find an indirect object in a sentence is to find the verb
and then ask to/for whom or for what.
Let’s look at an example:

“Ren gave her pencil to Colin.”

 

First, let’s find the direct object, since that is what the indirect object is
taking the action of. The verb in this sentence is gave, and the word that
answers “who/what is being given” is pencil. Now that we know the direct
object, we ask, “To whom was the pencil given?”. Ren gave her pencil to
Colin, so Colin is the indirect object.

Here’s one more example:

“Yvonne sent a letter to me.”

“Yvonne sent me a letter”
 

Let’s go through the same steps as before. The verb here is sent, and the
word that answers “who/what is being sent” is letter. Now we ask, “To
whom was the letter sent?” Yvonne sent the letter to me, so the indirect
object of the sentence is to me.