Direct & Indirect Objects

Form

A direct object is the thing a verb acts on, and an indirect object is the person who receives it.

Many verbs take both, in either of two orders. In the double-object pattern the person comes first and there is no preposition (She sent her mother flowers / He passed me the salt). In the prepositional pattern the thing comes first and the person follows with to or for (She sent flowers to her mother / She cooked dinner for the whole family). Verbs of giving and telling take to — give, send, lend, tell, show, offer, hand, pass — and verbs of doing something on someone's behalf take for: buy, make, cook, build, find, paint.

When to Use It

1. 1

   Put the person first when the thing is the new information

   He gave his sister a gift.

2. 2

   Put the thing first when the person is new or described at length

   She sent flowers to the woman who had helped her.

3. 3

   Use to with verbs of giving, sending and telling

   He lent his notes to a classmate who had missed the lecture.

4. 4

   Use for when you do something on someone's behalf

   She painted a portrait for her father.

5. 5

   Never put the person first with explain, describe, suggest, mention or admit

   Can you explain the rules to me?

6. 6

   Use the prepositional pattern when the thing is it or them

   Could you hand it to me?

Common Mistakes

• Explain me: write Can you explain the rules to me?, not Can you explain me the rules? — explain never takes the person first.
• Suggest me: write He suggested a good movie to us, not He suggested us a good movie — describe, mention and admit follow the same rule as explain, and in careful writing so does recommend.
• To for a favor: write Can you buy me a coffee? or Can you buy a coffee for me?, not Can you buy a coffee to me? — buy, make and cook take for.
• A preposition with the person first: write He passed me the salt, not He passed to me the salt — the double-object pattern takes no preposition.
• Subject pronoun as an object: write Could you hand me that pen?, not Could you hand I that pen? — objects are me, him, her, us, them.