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Grammar
Subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects
A subject is the noun phrase that drives the action of a sentence; in the sentence “Jake ate cereal,” Jake is the subject. The direct object is the thing that the subject acts upon, so in that last sentence, “cereal” is the direct object; it’s the thing Jake ate. An indirect object is an optional part of a sentence; it’s the recipient of an action. In the sentence “Jake gave me some cereal,” the word “me” is the indirect object; I’m the person who got cereal from Jake.
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Can second sentence be written as "Althea threw a Frisbee at me" ?(40 votes)
You could also say thatAlthea thew a Frisbee towards me. This version is slightly less clear thanAlthea threw me a Frisbeebut is definitely less of a threat than throwing something at someone.(73 votes)
Can second sentence be wriiten as "Mia was throwing darts."?(16 votes)
Yes, that works!
- Mia threw darts.
- Mia was throwing darts.
This would be unclear / incorrect:
- Mia was throwing me darts.
And hopefully you wouldn't need to say this:
- Mia was throwing darts at me / to me.
But this would work too:
- Mia threw darts at the dart board.
- Mia was throwing darts at the dart board.
Hope this helps!(24 votes)
- So, nothing can be in front of the subject?(10 votes)
"Thank you, Rory, for sending me the gift card!" is an example of when the subject, Rory is behind the phrase Thank you. This is just my take on it and I'm not that good with grammar.(12 votes)
Does the indirect object ALWAYS at the middle of the sentence?(13 votes)
"to Rory" is a prepositional phrase, so "Rory" is not technically the indirect object - though it means the same thing.
I tell my students to mark all prepositional phrases and ignore them. They are never the main components of a sentence (subj/verb/DO/IO/PN)(7 votes)
That's a really crystal explanation. Thanks! But I still have a question. Are there any direct object and indirect object in the following sentence? "Often they visit the Great Pyramids of Giza first."(5 votes)
I'm just going to digest that sentence out loud:
1. The subject is the pronounthey
2. The verb isvisit
3.Oftenandfirstdescribe when/how, so they are adverbs
4. A good question to ask isThey visit what?The answer is the Great Pyramids of Giza
Therefore, Great Pyramids [of Giza] is the direct object
To find the indirect object, you can askWho or what is receiving the [verb]
Hope these tips can help you find how to identify indirect and direct objects!!(14 votes)
- Is this correct?
This / is my uncle.
Subject Predicate(7 votes)
I think you are correct because a subject is the noun or pronoun part and the predicate is the verb part.
In the sentence "This is my uncle.", "this" is the subject and the predicate is "is my uncle".(4 votes)
can someone do this
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You are amazing.(1 vote)
- Hi, in the last sentence, "Wanda gave a gift card to Louie," I'm wondering WHY and HOW the prep phrase "to Louie" is as you said an "adverbial prepositional phrase" which modifies "gave". Is it in some form an adverb which describes the verb gave? I think I'm learning about these in class right now and I just need a little clarification. ALSO, can an indirect object count towards being a prep phrase as well when it is placed correctly after the verb? Thank you.(4 votes)
- You are trying to make up complex rules for things that are really simple. This is simple. Wanda (subject) gave (verb) a card (direct object) to Louie (indirect object). The sentence could also read, "Wanda (subject) gave (verb) Louie (indirect object) a card (direct object). It's only the placement of the indirect object at the end of the sentence (rather than immediately after the verb) that makes the word "to" necessary. Forget about adverb and prepositional phrases. It's simply what it is: Subject, verb, Direct object, Indirect object.(6 votes)
- what is the indirect object in this sentence?
jake's phone is charged(4 votes)- Your sample sentence, "Jake's phone is charged." does not contain a direct object or an indirect object, because the verb "to be" (here in the conjugated form, "is") is intransitive and does not take an object. Your sentence comes apart as follows: Jake's phone (subject) is (verb) charged (predicate adjective).(5 votes)
So Subject is a noun or pronoun
Direct is like a verb
Indirect is a recipient
how can I find out what is the recipient(2 votes)
Every subject, direct object, and indirect object is a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase. The subject “does” the verb (or does the “being” in linking verbs’ case).
In the sentence “Their parents gave them food,” the verb is “gave”. To find the sentence’s subject, we need to ask: Who or what gave? (Who is “doing” the giving?) The answer is “their parents”, which is the noun phrases that is this sentence’s subject.
To find the direct object, we can ask: Who or what is being [verb]ed? In this case, who or what is being given? “Food” is being given, so it’s the direct object.
Then, to find the indirect object, ask: Who or what is receiving the direct object? In this case, who or what is receiving the food? The answer, “them”, is the sentence’s indirect object. Here’s another hint for finding the indirect object: In English, the indirect object is generally located between the verb and the direct object, or in a phrase beginning with “to” or “for”.
Asking those questions above is probably more reliable for finding the direct and indirect objects in your sentences, though.(4 votes)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] Hello, grammarians. Hello, Rosie. - [Voiceover] Hi, David. - [Voiceover] So, today
we're gonna be talking about subject, direct object,
and indirect object, and identifying those within a sentence, but first, I suppose we should figure out what those things are. So, we've talked about
what subjects are before, but let's review it again really quickly. So, a subject is a noun or a pronoun that performs the verb in a sentence. So, in the sentence, Chris ate cereal, Chris is the subject, because Chris is the noun or pronoun that is performing the verb, ate. Rosie, what is a direct object? - [Voiceover] So, a direct object is the main thing in the sentence that is being acted upon, so in this sentence, Chris ate cereal, cereal would be the direct object, because it's the thing being acted upon, it's being eaten. - [Voiceover] So, every
sentence has to have a subject, so subject is critical, but direct objects and
indirect objects less so. - [Voiceover] Right.
- [Voiceover] So, you know, as a sentence, we could just
have "Chris ate", right? - [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] But if we want
to bring in this direct object, we can say Chris ate cereal. So, who's doing the eating? Chris. What is the thing that was eaten? Cereal. So, this seems like it would cover most interactions between
objects and people, but then we have this other
thing, indirect object. What's that about? - [Voiceover] So, an
indirect object is often... It's kind of signifying
a recipient of something, so it's like another thing in a sentence that might be acted upon. - [Voiceover] So, let's
see if we can come up with some examples for that, cause we have this direct object, which is this thing being acted upon, and then the indirect object
is also being acted upon, but it's being acted upon
in, like, a giving way? Let's see if we can figure this out. Alright, so we have this
sentence, straightforward, Althea threw a frisbee. So, we've got subject here, and we've got direct object here. Who's doing the throwing? Althea. What did she throw? A frisbee. But, what if we have the sentence Althea threw me a frisbee? Well, we know from context, because we have the word frisbee in here, that Althea is not
hurling me, bodily, right? She's not chucking me across
a field for a dog to catch. But we do know that the
subject of the sentence is Althea, and we know
that the direct object of the sentence is frisbee, but where is that frisbee going? Well, it's going to me. Okay, so we've got this,
is the direct object, this is the subject, and this is the indirect object. So, the pronoun, me, is the recipient of the
direct object, the frisbee. Rosie, would you read me
this sentence, please? - [Voiceover] Wanda
gave Louie a gift card. - [Voiceover] That's very nice of her. - [Voiceover] Yeah. - [Voiceover] Okay, so,
walk me through this, then. What is going on in this sentence? What are the relationships between the components of this sentence? - [Voiceover] Okay. So, we have two people, and the first person listed is
the subject of the sentence, because she's doing an action. - [Voiceover] Right,
she's doing the giving. - [Voiceover] Right. Then we have the direct
object, which is a gift card. - [Voiceover] Okay, that's
the object that she gave. - [Voiceover] Yeah, that's
something she's giving. She has a direct relationship
with that, but she... The gift card has a
recipient, and that's Louie, and he's the indirect object. - [Voiceover] I think
another way to identify whether or not a word is the
indirect object in a sentence is to see if you can pull it out and stick it on the end of the sentence, as it currently stands,
with a preposition, and see if it still makes sense. In this case, to Louie is
no longer what we would traditionally consider an indirect object. So, if we've got Wanda gave a gift card to Louie, Wanda is the subject, gift
card is the direct object, and then we can see to Louie is now this
adverbial prepositional phrase that modifies gave. It's the manner in which
she gave it to Louie, and if we switched it out, if we said Wanda gave Louie to gift card, that doesn't make sense at all. So, to review, the subject is the noun or pronoun that performs
a verb in a sentence. - [Voiceover] The direct object is the thing that's acted upon. - [Voiceover] And the indirect object is the recipient of that direct object, it's the thing that
gets the direct object. In the case of Althea threw me a frisbee, the pronoun me is the indirect object. In the case of Wanda
gave Louie a gift card, Louie is the indirect object. He gets the gift card, I get the frisbee. - [Voiceover] Right. - [Voiceover] But, as subjects, direct object, and indirect objects, you can learn anything. David out. - [Voiceover] Rosie out.