Word Classes 3: The Object (Direct and Indirect)

As we saw in the last lesson: The object can be a noun or a pronoun and is responsible for giving information about the subject.
Ex: I have a car. ('a car' is the object because it informs what 'I' (the subject) 'have' (verb).
Ex: Andrew loves her. ('her' is the object because it informs who 'Andrew' (subject) 'loves' (verb).

But before talking about the objects themselves, let's talk about transitivity. Transitivity happens when the action expressed by a verb 'transits' to an object making the sentence make sense.

When the subject performs an action expressed in a verb, this action can or cannot 'transit' to an object. If the verb needs an object to make the sentence make sense it is called transitive verb, but if the verb doesn't need an object to make the sentence make sense, it is called intransitive verb.

Ex: Sarah washes her hair. In this case 'washes' is a transitive verb because it needs the object 'her hair' to make the sentence make sense.
     My father died six years ago. In this case 'died' in an intransitive verb because it does not need anything else to make the sentence make sense. If the sentence was 'My father died', it would make sense.

Therefore, transitive verbs need objects to compliment the sentence meaning. If you use a transitive verb without an object the sentence won't make any sense.

But how can a verb action transit to the object?
The action expressed by a verb can transit to the object in two ways: Directly (generating a direct object) and indirectly (generating an indirect object). So, in English we have two kinds of objects: The Direct Object and The Indirect Object.
Let's see them individually.
1. The object direct is the one whose action expressed by the verb transits directly to it. In other words, the direct object is 'what' the verb performed.
In the example: 'Sarah washes her hair', 'her hair' is a direct object because the action of washing transits directly to it. 'Her hair' is what Sarah 'washes'.

2. The indirect object, in English, always come in a sentence with a direct object and is the one whose action expressed by the verb transits indirectly to it. In other words the indirect object is 'who received' the action perfomed by the verb through the direct object and it can appear in the sentence in two ways. Confusing? Let me give an example of each case.

1. Andy bought some chocolate for Paula. In this example 'some chocolate' is the direct object because the action of buying transits directly to it.'Some chocolate' is 'what' Andy 'bought'. But, for Paula is the indirect object because the action of buying transits indirectly to her. 'Paula' is 'who receives' some chocolate', the chocolate Andy bought, that is, the action transits indirectly through the direct object (some chocolate) to the indirect object (for Paula). In this case the indirect object comes with a preposition (for)
2. Andy bought Paula some chocolate. In this case the indirect object comes just after the verb and it's the most common two-object construction in English. To discover which object is the direct you can ask 'what' the verb performed and to discover which is the indirect you can ask 'to whom' the action was performed.
For making indirect objects using prepositions we usually use to or for. Use to with the following verbs: bring, feed, give, hand, lend, offer, owe, pass, pay, post, promise, read, sell, send, show, take, teach, tell, throw, write and use for with the following verbs: book, bring, build, buy, choose, cook, fetch, find, get, leave, make, order, pick, reserve, save
Exercises: 
1. Write the information in one sentence. Use the underlined part in the end of the sentence. Sometimes you'll need to use to.
a) Jack lent something to David. It was his watch.
b) Steve bought something to his girlfriend. It was a necklace.
c) Andrew ordered something to her daughter. It was some apple juice.
d) John helped someone. It was his aunt.

2. Decide if the sentence should be completed with to or for:
a) Book a flight ____ me, could you?
b) Don't show these papers ______ my boss, ok?
c) Write a letter _______ my customers.
d) Could you make some coffe ____ us?

The answers to the questions may be sent to:
e-mail: eng.4.today@gmail.com
Orkut: http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Profile?uid=13978883568364259345
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All the answers will commented by the teacher and sent back by email.
Please comment and give suggestion about the lessons and the blog.
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English for Today by Nimlot Logan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Word Classes 2: Parts of the sentence. (The subject, the verb and the predicate)

Sentence Structure

A sentence is compound basically of three elements: The subject, the verb and the predicate.

The subject is the element which the verb makes reference. For example:

I have a car. In this sentence, 'I' is the subject because the action expressed by 'have' is related to 'I'.

John is a teacher. In this example, the subject is 'John' because the state expressed by 'is' is related to 'John'.

A good way of finding the subject in a sentence is asking the verb who is performing the action or being the state the verb expresses.

Let's take the examples above:

I have a car. Q: Who has the car? A: I ('I' is the subject)

John is a teacher. Q: Who is a teacher? A: John ('John' is the subject)

The subject is a noun or a pronoun, that is any person or being (Peter, John, Ralph, a cat, the birds) and all subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, you and they).

The verb is a really important part of the sentence, because if you don't have a verb you can't make a sentence.

The predicate is the part responsible for giving additional information about the subject, that is, it is responsible for telling the hearer or the reader what exactly the subject is doing (action) or what it is (state). 

It is composed by the following structures: The object and the complement (predicative and adverbial).

1. The object can be a noun or a pronoun and is responsible for giving information about the subject.
   Ex: I have a car. ('a car' is the object because it informs what 'I' (the subject) 'have' (verb).
   Ex: Andrew loves her. ('her' is the object because it informs who 'Andrew' (subject) 'loves' (verb).
   1. The predicative can be found in two types: The predicative of the subject and the predicative of the object.
      a) The predicative of the subject is responsible for giving a quality to the subject in a static verb sentence:
      Ex: The car is red. ('red' is the predicative of the subject because it shows the colour the car is. Car is the subject of the sentence and 'is' is an static verb (it doesn't express an action)
      b) The predicative of the object is responsible for giving a quality to the object in an action verb sentence.
      Ex: Michael painted his wall blue. ('blue' is the predicative of the object because it shows what colour Michael painted his wall. Wall is the object of the sentence and 'paint' is an action verb.
      
   2. The adverbial complement is responsible for attributing a manner, a time, a position to the sentenceEx: The garage is near. ('near' is the adverbial complement because it shows 'how far' the garage is.
      
      
      Exercise:
      
      
      1. Identify in the following sentences which part of the sentence is underlined. For the parts of the predicate, specify if it is the object, the predicative or the adverbial.
      
      
      a) We're having a bad time.
      b) Mary really enjoys playing tennis.
      c) Steve works in a company.
      d) Dan often goes to the cinema.
      e) We're painting the roses red.
      f) Garry has gone to Australia last year.
      g) The scenery is very beautiful.
      h) Gabriel is sad very rarely.
      
      
      The answers to the questions may be sent to:
      e-mail: eng.4.today@gmail.com
      Orkut: http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Profile?uid=13978883568364259345
      Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/English-for-Today/177566135615065?
      All the answers will commented by the teacher and sent back by email.
      Please comment and give suggestion about the lessons and the blog.
      This blog is a non commercial, non profit educational website.
      
      
      English for Today by Nimlot Logan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.