I am having trouble differentiating between direct and indirect objectsof pronouns. Can someone send me any..

Question

advice or rules on the subject? It's the indirect, direct, and preposition objects that I'm having trouble with. Thanks alot.

Answer 1

The direct object is a noun or pronoun that follows an action verb and receives the action of the verb.

Example: I kicked the ball. Ball is the DO of the verb kicked. The subject (I) does the action; the DO receives the action.

Example: The boy standing by the pool threw the ball into the water. BALL is the DO of the verb threw. NOTE: pool is not the DO. It was the ball, not the pool that was thrown.

Indirect object is always BETWEEN the verb and the DO and tells to whom or for whom the action of the verb is done. (NOTE) You cannot have an IO without a DO!!)

Example: Jim gave Bill the ball. Jim is the subject; gave, the verb; ball is the DO of gave. Bill is the IO. NOTICE it comes BETWEEN the verb and the DO.

Example: Betty threw Mary and her the towel.
Betty is the subject; threw is the verb; towel is the DO; Mary and her is the IO.

Example: John gave a kiss to Isabel. John is the subject; gave is the verb; kiss is the DO of gave; Isabel is NOT an IO because it does not come between the verb and DO. Rather, Isabel is the object of the preposition to.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

It's been too long, I forget... BUT I can recommend a great book. Harbrace's Handbook. It contains all rules for the English language and writing. It is required at 99% of colleges, but if you go ahead and get one now, you'll be ahead of the game. HH cuts thru the junk to give you just the details you need w/ great examples of right and wrong. You can get it at any college bookstore, if you're near a college/univ, or from Amazon or B&N.