General English Level 3 V 3
UNIT 04 Money matters TOPIC 01 Have we got enough?
LANGUAGE FOCUS 05 Direct and indirect objects
Do you know what an object is? Do you know the difference between direct and indirect objects? Find out in this activity!

Most verbs take an object. The object is the person or thing that the verb acts on, or does something to.

For example, in the sentence:

' They are eating dinner ' , dinner is the object of the verb 'are eating' .

Find out more about objects.

Some verbs can take a direct object and an indirect object.

Pedro doesn't have any money. Jim lends some money to Pedro.


We can say this in a different way:


Another example:



In these examples the direct object comes first, followed by TO/ FOR + the indirect object

Subject
Verb
Direct object
Preposition
Indirect object
I
made
a cake
for
Ann.
We
gave
a present
to
Miko.
They
sent
a letter
to
her.

Remember to put to and for before the indirect object.

In these examples the indirect object comes before the direct object.

Subject
Verb
Indirect object
Direct object
I
made
Ann
a cake.
We
gave
Miko
a present.
They
sent
her
a letter.

If the direct object is the pronoun it or them , we can only use the first sentence pattern.

Subject
Verb
Direct object
Preposition
Indirect object
I
made
it
for
Ann.
We
gave
them
to
Miko.

Now go to 06 PRACTICE Direct and indirect objects.