Direct and Indirect Objects

An object is a person or a thing that is acted upon by the subject.

Or

We can say an object is a noun or pronoun that is affected by the action expressed by the verb.

Let’s read the sentence.

          ·         Ria wrote the poem.

        Here, "Ria" is the subject, the doer or performer,

        "wrote" is a verb that refers to the action,

        "the poem" is the object involved in the action.

Types of objects

There are two types of objects: direct and indirect objects:

Direct Object: A direct object answers the question such as "what?" or "whom?"

Examples:

        1.   Ravi repaired his old bicycle.

        Here, old bicycle is the direct object as it answers “what?”

        2.   He called Rina to his birthday party.

        Here, ‘Rina’ is the direct object as it answers “whom”

Indirect Object: An indirect object answers the question such as "to whom?", "for whom?", "for what?"

An indirect object is the recipient of the direct object. Therefore, an indirect object cannot exist without a direct object.

Examples:

        1.   They sent her a bouquet

        Here, ‘her’ is the indirect object as it answers “to whom?”

        2.   She bought her daughter a doll.

        Here, ‘her daughter’ is the indirect object as it answers “for whom?”

Now let’s study these sentences and put them under respective heading in the table below.

      1.   The teacher gave Anil a pencil.

      2.   My grandma told me a story.

      3.   The king gave the soldier his sword.

Note: If we can put ‘to’ before the Noun, that Noun is the Indirect Object and the other Noun is the Direct Object.