What are Direct and Indirect Objects?
Indirect and Direct objects are nouns or pronouns that identify to or for whom an action is being performed. Direct objects can be nouns, pronouns, clauses, and phrases which require someone to directly receive an action verb. Indirect objects, on the other hand, are pronouns or nouns that identify to whom or for whom an action verb is performed. It indirectly identifies the person receiving the action verbs mentioned with pronouns.
Examples of Direct Objects - A direct object receives the action performed the subject. Let's use this sentence as an example - "Bob dunked the basketball." The action word in that sentence is "dunked", and the basketball is the object that is receiving the action (the basketball is being dunked). Therefore, the basketball is the direct object.
Try for yourself! State the direct object in the following sentence - "The car hit the tree"
Examples of Indirect Objects - As was mentioned earlier, direct objects receive the action performed the subject. Indirect objects, on the other hand, are the subjects that receive the indirect object. Let's use this sentence as an example - "Bob threw the ball to Mark." The direct object in that sentence is the ball, and Mark is the one receiving the direct object. Therefore, Mark is the indirect object. Another way of identifying the indirect object is by thinking, "For whom was the object given?" To whom was the ball thrown to? Mark!
Try for yourself! State the indirect object in the following sentence - "Philip gave the dog a bone"
